Hello! Welcome and thank you for asking on HCM! I understand your concern. I would explain that your symptoms seem to be related to the chiary malformation. But a careful differential diagnosis with other causes (like a sinus infection) should be done. Is your headache related to cough or laughing? This would be typical of Chiary malformation related headache. The fact that the headache begins ant the base of the skull is another argument in favor of Chiary related headache. I recommend consulting with your attending physician for a careful physical examination, a brain CT scan or MRI and a routine blood test (complete blood count, PCR, sedimentation rate), to exclude any possible complication of Chiary malformation. If a sinus infection is excluded by the above mentioned tests, you should consult with a neurosurgeon, to consider the possibility of an intervention for the decompression of posterior fossa (which is a intervention for Chiary malformation). A cervical spine MRI may be needed to exclude possible syringomyelia (which is a complication associated to Chiary malformation). Hope to have been helpful! Best wishes, Dr. Aida