Any information that you could provide would be of great assistance. Dear Tonya, You have a number of developmental anomalies and the symptoms from the hydrocephalus, the Chiari malformation and the tethered cord may overlap a bit. Hydrocephalus may be communicating, where CSF cannot flow back into the venous system, or non-communicating, as in a tumor physically obstructing CSF pathways. The MRI will be useful in this regard. Symptoms from hydrocephalus are headaches, nausea, vomiting and lethargy.
Chiari malformations are the physical herniation of the cerebellar tonsils out the foramen magnum.
Symptoms may include headaches, dizziness and cranial nerve deficits. I malformation being most common. This is likely what you have. Tethered cord syndrome occurs when the terminal end of the spinal cord, the filum terminale, is tethered to the sacrum in development. The conus medullaris is abnormally low and there is often an associated lipoma in the region.