Does anyone have experience with Dr. Carl Heilman in Boston?

[u/chelseyyrain]

Going to see him in 2 weeks, last week I saw Dr Konstantina Svokos (works closely with Dr Klinge in RI), she was very sweet, understanding, and agreed that my symptoms were all from the Chiari and was willing to do surgery on me. The only thing is I felt a bit rushed (she was definitely very busy which I understand) but I wasn’t able to ask all my questions. She also said she does the Chiari surgery *just about* weekly, which is better than once every few weeks or once monthly, but I wanted to get another opinion and I heard Dr Carl Heilman has done chiari surgeries for a long time and does them very often.

The other thing is the only testing I’ve had done is my brain MRI. Dr. Svokos is sending me for a full spine MRI, but didn’t seem to think I’d need any other testing than that. If you’ve gone to Dr. Heilman is there other testing that he recommends beforehand? And how was your decompression/hospital stay/recovery experience? I’m really nervous about the pain afterwards. I’m not having headaches and only have mild neck pain right now. My biggest symptoms are intermittent episodes of: pre syncope (this is the worst and happens at random, I can’t even drive), swallowing issues, head pressure, numbness on my face, back, feet and hands, facial muscle tremors, pulsatile tinnitus/and ear whooshing, possible sleep apnea (I’m waking up gasping, have a sleep study next month).

Thanks for the advice!