Quote:
Originally Posted by jenna1398
Hi everyone!
I'm so glad that I found this forum!
I have been suffering from pretty severe abdominal pain on my lower right side, which I have read about in a few posts. This has been going on for almost a year now and I've been to numerous drs who don't know what to do with me and ship me off to someone else.
I have a VP shunt which was placed in Feb 2003 after 2 previous ventriculostomies. I was diagnosed with acqueductal stenosis just before my 21st birthday...spent that one in the neurosurgeon's office. Fun fun! I had a ventriculostomy following my diagnosis in Feb 2000. It closed up and was redone in Feb 2002. Then my shunt was placed in '03. The pain just started in early 2008.
I've had a diagnostic laparoscopy done in September because the drs didn't know what else to do. CT scans didn't show any problems. But I had severe adhesions in the lower right quadrant of my abdominal cavity which were attached to my intestines and abdominal wall that had to be removed. The dr also removed my appendix because it was involved in the whole tangle, too. I was hoping that would be the end of the problem, but the pain is actually worse now. I'm assuming that the scar tissue was almost cushioning the distal end of my shunt and now it's poking me even more!
I'm at a loss of what to do. The neurosurgeon I saw recently (I've only seen him that one time) said he doesn't think the shunt has anything to do with it. But it's like I'm being stabbed internally! It's to the point that I sometimes can't walk, take deep breaths or pick up my 3 year old...I'm getting depressed over the whole thing, too, which of course makes things a million times worse. Any suggestions as what to try next? Thanks,
Jenn
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I, too, suffered abdominal pain on the same side as you suggest, opposite to the side the shunt was placed in my head. The suggestion at the time, just a week or two ago, was that the distal end of my shunt may have been blocked. The way to discover this is by doing an ultrasound of the abdomen. I had that done and the X-ray tech said she could see no obstruction at the bottom end, but wouldn't rule out a blockage in the middle of my stomach somewhere. She said she couldn't tell, because to be truthful, I'm overweight at 300 lbs. and she just couldn't see past what she called "body mass". But for you, it might be worth having your doctor send you for an ultrasound of the abdomen. It's a very painless and non evasive test. I didn't even need a hospital gown. They simply probed the area of the distal end, which I was surprised to find was way over by my right hip and not at the end of the incision. So, if I were you, I'd get the ultrasound and go from there.
Jeff