Forgot to mention last time..

My last visit to see my neurosurgeon wasn't all negative with the finding of the CSF leak, we also got some good news from the MRI scans.  The reason we did surgery in the first plave was because I had a significantly large syrinx (pocket of built up spinal fluid and protein, most likely blood) in my spinal cord from the top of my neck down to about the second vertebrae in my back.  The syrinx is what was causing most of my symptoms.  It's caused my the Chiari, the piece of my brain that's taking up space outside of my skull where it shouldn't be and is therefore putting pressure on my spinal cord, creating the syrinx. Since we can't remove that piece of my brain, we had to remove a piece of my skull and most of the first vertebrae that are also taking up space in the same area. The goal is that once there are fewer things fighting for that space, the pressure is removed and the syrinx will break down into fluid will once again begin to flow like it's supposed to. 
The MRI we did last week was a brain MRI (since we were worried about the area at the base of my brain causing my recent headaches), so it didn't show as much of my neck as a cervical MRI would have, but we could see about halfway down, past C2, and it was obvious that the syrinx is smaller...this is great news!  We can't see the other end of the syrinx and it is unlikely that the whole thing shifted down as that is not typical of a syrinx, so the most likely case is that it has started breaking down, meaning that the surgery was a success.  Once Carley is here we will do a cervical MRI and possibly another thoracic to get the whole picture, but for now, we'll take the good news.
This change may also help to explain the pocket that has formed at the base of my head.  When the syrinx breaks down, that fluid once again starts flowing and taking up space around the brain, plus my body has increased blood and fluids right now because of the pregnancy, so my doctor believes even more so now that the leak is due to the pregnancy and my body trying to find somewhere to put this new fluid it hasn't had to deal with for a long time. 
This theory also goes along with my visit today.  The headaches aren't following the trend of typical CSF (cerebral-spinal fluid) headaches which also makes my doctor think that they're being caused by changes due to the pregnancy, meaning they should hopefully go away once Carley is here.  Yes, it stinks that I'll be dealing with them for a few more months, but that's better news than the possibility of an emergency surgery between now and then that would be very dangerous for our baby girl. In the meantime, we just try to manage them as best we can and continue to depend on our wonderful friends and neighbors who always find a way to be there for us when we need them...hopefully for just a few more months :)
I go back next Thursday to continue to monitor the pocket of fluid and make sure it isn't growing or hardening..