Woman from Farr hoping to raise £20,000 for life-changing brain operation
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A 42-year-old woman from Farr is in constant pain from a number of conditions.
Rachael Angela Quant suffers from Arnold Chiari syndrome/Chiari malformation, fibromyalgia and filum disease and has been feeling unwell for the past eight years.
She had an MRI scan after she started getting headaches and it was discovered she had the Chiari malformation (CM) – her brain is growing into her spinal canal.
Ms Quant said: “This causes all kinds of symptoms and I get daily headaches and pressure in my head and I find it hard to think or do anything sometimes because of this.”
As well as the headaches other symptoms include pain, nausea, heart palpitations, stomach problems and hormonal problems.
She said: “Very little is known about these conditions especially in the UK.
“There is an operation called decompression surgery which is what they usually offer people here who have CM.
“It is a really serious operation where they remove bone at the back of the skull and seems very traumatising with many risks involved.
“I saw a neurosurgeon here in Inverness but she had only done the surgery on children and did not recommend it.”
Her condition was made worse two years ago when she was involved in a car crash, at a roundabout in Shore Street, Inverness, and she said: “The last two years, I have definitely noticed things getting worse and, at the base of my skull, it feels like a pulling sensation.
“There’s pain at the base of my head and neck which worsens when I sit or lie down.”
Ms Quant has since spoken with others who have the same condition and said: “Someone mentioned in one of the groups that they had been to a clinic in Barcelona and had an operation which really helped.
“I started reading about it. The operation was for filum disease which the clinic believe causes the fibromyalgia and possibly the Chiari malformation.
“Filum disease comes under the term tethered cord – where the spinal cord is attached and pulling the spinal cord tight – and causes all kinds of pain and nervous system disorders.”
Surgeons at the Chiari Institute of Barcelona have come up with a minimally invasive procedure to untether the spinal cord which they say halts the progression of the disease.
Ms Quant said that if it was allowed to progress she feared she would end up in a wheelchair and, as she had not been diagnosed with filum disease here in the UK, the operation could not be performed on the NHS.
She said: “The cost is a huge amount and I feel a bit embarrassed and ashamed asking for money because I am usually a very proud and independent person but I have had to try to put those feelings aside as I really need this operation.”
To make a donation, visit www.gofundme.com/operation-in-barcelona-spain
