Hi! I was hospitalized on Wednesday for chest pain. I have a VA shunt, and I also have Asthma, but my doctor ruled out that it was Asthma. Last Sunday I developed a huge headache, and I called my surgeon on Tuesday. Dr.Mclanahan said that where my chest pain was coming from shouldn't be from the shunt(we do have a genetic heart condition in our family), so he told me to get the closest hospital that could evaluate my heart. Well I went to a hospital in Raleigh 1 1/2 hours away from home and they determined my heart is fine while in the hospital Wednesday. They called Carolinas Medical Center, and they told them to send me by ambulance down here, which was only suppose to take 2 1/2 hours. well turns out the people bringing me down here had no idea how to get the hospital, and didn't tell me this, they just punched it into the GPS, but they didn't have the write address for the hospital, and so they got lost and pulled into the wrong hospital, then had to get directions to my hospital. The trip ended up taking a little over 4 hours. I didn't get here till around 4am. i was semi-consious or sleeping most of the trip, and didn't realize how lost they were, till it was to late, and I then got upset and told them a really easy way to get to Carolinas Medical Center-Main Campus. Now has any body heard of this? Whenever I get sick with anything I always end up with a shunt headache? This time was the first time I got really really sick, and had to be hospitalized, event hough the shunt still works. It may have a break in the tubing in my neck because I feel fluid leaking, but I am also having a lot of problems walking. The only medication that controls the pain is I.V demerol. Since its a VA shunt I know things can happen, that don't happen with VP shunts, but I am right now surprised that my doctor hasn't done the shunt flow study that he wanted to do a few days ago yet.