Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperFemme
Welcome SAB. You ARE a miracle aren't you? So glad you're still here with us after such a rough start.
I had a shunt for around 1 1/2 years after a brain injury. I had a lot of stomach problems during that time. 
What is the malfunction you have with yours? Is a revision a rough thing? I am super curious... |
Thanks for your questions, Super...
A neurosurgeon I had in Alaska put the cause of a malfunction this way: The top layer of your brain flakes off like skin. Often, it is this material that clogs the shunt tubing leaving it unable to drain the CSF (brain fluid) it is supposed to. When I was growing up, it was either this reason or that I needed more tubing due to growing. Of course that stopped a long time ago.
He also told me that some patients have more malfunctions than others. I think I fall into that category.
Anyway. A revision is pretty much brain surgery and I *do* have a lot of scar tissue around my head and stomach but it is a relatively easy surgery, they just knock me out and after unclogging it put new tubing in. As I've gotten older it takes more out of me, but I am used to it.
I have to reschedule a CT scan that I am supposed to be having this week of my stomach end of the shunt, after that I will make another appointment with my current neuro. He told daisy and I that he doesn't want to do a revision every time he has a patient with a shunt complain of the symptoms (headache, mood changes, either sleeping too much or too little, vomiting, nausea, loss of appetite..) but that he knows that often CT scans don't show anything wrong (which is every single time, with me)
Until then I take Vicodin to dull the pain. I've had the symptoms since late May early June, so I hope something happens soon. I know my mom back in Alaska is worried, along with daisy and daisy's mom.
Well enough about me. I just wanna say that I am loving reading everyone's stories...sometimes it helps to know that you are not alone.
~SAB