Hello my name is Ryan, I'm 32 years old (as of yesterday) and have had a shunt to deal with hydrocephalus since I was 1 year old. I've the shunt itself revised twice. Once when I was 8, then again when I was 9. I have had the tube replaced once, about 9 years ago.

I am an active grappler (and yes, I know full well the dangers) and have sort of always known that this could happen. Today I was doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with some friends, about an hour and a half in I wound up in a strange position where my neck got cranked one way I heard multiple pops, tapped out, and when I looked in a mirror the 'bulge' of my shunt tube (that has been pretty taut for a couple of years) was gone. I have a bit of pain when I turn my head to the right, but I think that that's only bruising against the muscle that the tube sat against. Other than that no problems.

Well there's one problem, I won't have medical insurance for 5 weeks.

The last time this happened (9 years ago) I honestly couldn't tell you the cause. I just randomly wound up with a fluid lump in my lower neck that stuck around for a couple of weeks until I flew back to Portland (home town, I was still under my mother's insurance at the time) and had an xray. I flew back and went back to work (lump still there), they called me a couple of days later and said the tube was broken, about a week after that I had a new tube put in.

I know the first thing I'll be told here is to go have it looked at immediately, but I will not do that unless I start showing symptoms of malfunction. I really don't know anything about hydrocephalus, my shunt, or anything for that matter.Wink

I also suffer from General Anxiety Disorder.

I grapple to cope with my anxiety.

I've probably grappled for the last time.

In a nutshell I signed up here to talk to people about what it is I have, what I should do while I wait for my insurance to kick in, and how to cope with losing my one release (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu). I'm really worried. One, because if this gets bad, I'm going to wind up costing my family a ton of money. Two, I don't know what to do without BJJ.

Any advice would be appreciated. Sorry for the long read. I'm pretty worried and needed to get it off my chest.