Originally Posted by robert_uk

Hello & I hope people on the forum here can explain or give any advice on the following situation as it is effecting my partner.
He has had Cancer and while that was under chemo developed severe bacterial meningitis. The meningitis totally incapacitated him, he had had 18 lumber punches in 18 days and by then morphine and no effect on the pain. They said they could not do any more LP’s, so 4 weeks ago they put a shunt in. Immediately he felt better and after 3 days was able to eat ( after not eating for 2 weeks previous) and his headaches had gone. They discharged him. 1 week later he felt dizzy and a lump the size of a egg appeared at the base of his spine, where the lumber punches had been, also a lump appeared under the stitches in his stomach. His headaches returned and he started vomiting when ever any food or pill entered his stomach, he suffered severe nausea and lost all balance. He was admitted to hospital where they put a “pressure “ patch on the lump at the base of the spine. After 2 days of agonising pain, he told the Dr’s it was not working, they said give it time. He spent the next 7 days in hospital, in pain, vomiting and did not .could not eat anything or drink. His medication was just thrown up 5 minutes after taking it. They discharged him from hospital after 8 days lying there with just a pressure patch on, and NO food, still nauseous and in tremendous head pain. I took him home, over the next 3 days he got wore & worse, I then took him to the hospital again. It was last Thursday. They said he needed surgery urgently to unblock or fix the shunt as it was not working (this had been obvious 10 days ago when he was in hospital). Last Saturday they replaced the Shunt with a “larger one” . On the Sunday they discharged him, less than 24 hrs after the operation his 2nd in 3 weeks. He was very week going into this 2nd Shunt operation due to the lack of food and medicine over the previous 8 days. I brought him home on the Sunday, he was vomiting within 45 minutes of leaving the hospital. His headaches had ceased at this stage. This Monday morning he woke with such severe head pain , not like the previous head pain, a very different ( to the bacterial meningitis ; hydrocephalus high pressure headaches) but debilitating to the point that the slightest head movement would cause him to scream out in pain. I had to call an ambulance and he was taken back to hospital. He remains there at present, unable to eat and getting weaker, and still with this terrible pain, again the morphine (the little they give) does not relieve the pain.

The Dr this evening mentioned that it may be due to “over drainage” & that they may have to replace the shunt.

Has anyone had or know of similar experiences , to me it seems that there has been mistakes & wasted time in fixing these mistakes which has and is making the situation worse.

He is wasting away and getting physically weaker by the hour, racked by pain and I believe he is mentally “giving up” he said to me this afternoon, “he just wish it would end”.

What should the Dr’s be doing ? How many Shunt operations can they do to fix the problem ? How dangerous is “over drainage” ?

I apologise for the length of the post but am very grateful for help in the above.