Quote:
Originally Posted by Lilsoljah
Hey everyone. I'm not really sure what to say I have read many posts regarding Vp shunts and Va shunts. But I'm seeking people who have had issues with them before to help me out with how they over come the pain and became more comfortable. My dad has had a head ache for comming up 3 years now going now more than 6 weeks after a surgery before we are back to square one. He has something called intercaranial hypertension. I think his body ptoduces too much csf. For the last year he has had more than 12 surgeries for either unblocking the tubing or replacement of his shunt before they decided to put in a Lp shunt.. which also packeted a sad so just last week he ended up getting a Va shunt out in. However now he has really bad chest pain and the hospital think he could have an infection or blood clots.. Can anyone help with some information or their experiences with this? I'm sick of hearing 'there's nothing else we can do'
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Hey Lilsoljah,
I haven't been around for a while but thought I'd drop by and I read your post. Your line of 'there's nothing else we can do' is all too common and a position, I am sorry to say, I am in. I have a VP shunt, my first fractured and was replaced, the positioning of the 2nd was not correct and was again replaced. This replacement had a non magnetic valve which became blocked and then failed, the valve was replaced with a magnetic valve. And now I'm being told "...we could operate again, but there's no guarantee we can fix, in fact we could make things worse..." so "...there's nothing else we can do...". I have been told by the medicos they cant be removing the extra tubing within the brain as his would leave a void which can then fill with blood and lead to a risk of stroke. The dr's make out that they have ALL the answers, but they don't and when all of their avenues have been exhausted we are left to deal with it all on our own. I'm sorry to say I do not have any great answers for you but strongly recommend you get a 2nd opinion from someone who is not associated with the hospital nor dr's that you have been seeing. The neuro community is not huge and getting a truly independent opinion can be difficult and you may need to travel interstate to obtain one. I believe Pogo's is correct and recommend you follow thru with his advice too.
Best of luck with it all
Merl1n