Wow, you're tough! I can relate...several years ago I endured what my husband dubbed "Shuntfest" (complete with tee shirts) which consisted of three shunt surgeries, daily wound dressing changes and then a wound vac, while at the same time, my husband was tryiing to complete and defend his doctoral dissertation and we were trying to put our house on the market to move out of state. Oh and my two collies contracted pancreatitis, one needed to be hospitalized for a few days and then endured the dreaded Cone Of Shame.

I had a revision when I was 18 (the week before freshman orientation in college!) where I had this shooting numbing pain down the left side of my neck that came and went for probably over a year, and no one could ever tell me why I had it. In nursing school, I established the hypothesis that it was caused by neuro or musular damage caused by the position my head was in for such a long time during the surgery.

I had a tight feeling over my previous shunt site and this one too (oh and the hair growing back is makes it really itchy). I wonder if your issue is a more extreme version of that. If so, then you may want to look into some alternative pain treatments. Since attention plays a large part in our perception of pain, meditation has been found to be a very effective treatment. I can't sit still long enough to meditate but when I was discussing my activity restrictions with my(totally awesome) neurosurgeon, he recommended that I try Tai Chi. I found a Tai Chi group on MeetUp.com and absolutely love it! Since it is a moving meditation, I feel so relaxed and centered afterward.

You have already been through so much, I'm sorry that you have to go through this too. You clearly have alot of strength to have endured what you have, so I have no doubt that you will get through this too. Hang in there!