Fron what I understand of your last post, your brother and sister-in-law are urging you to see if you can do better than what your mom and dad want you to do? It kind of sounds that way, at least THEY have faith in you. Correct me if I am wrong.

Hey, you are over 21! You can do whatever you want. So what if driving may be a problem, there is public transportation (I'm in the same battle with my dad) and I am confident you have common sense enough to tell you to stay put if you feel the slightest bit funny.

Can I ask if this has been an issue your ENTIRE life, and I bet you are going to have issues with seccond hand smoke before you have issues with your shunt.

Oh yeah, there is something called "life alert", but there is one thing that coud be an issue? When your shunt goes down, does it go down without warning or do you normally get gradual signs? This may or may not make a difference as long as you get into surgery ASAP.