Hey yall! It's been a while since I've posted so I guess I'll just catch yall up on everything going on with me. I think when I started on here I was just recovering from having my shunt changed to a ventriculopleural shunt from a ventriculoperitoneal shunt. Well, I started feeling bad in January, with severe pain in the back of my head and dizzy spells. My neuro said its most likely my chiari malformation(which was most likely caused by my arachnoid cyst) doing it. So we were waiting for the college semester to end in order to do surgery for it. Well, around April, I started with nausea. It was every now and then at first and progressed to constantly by the end of April. Around that same time I started with a cough that wouldn't go away. It was almost every time I would try to say something I would end up coughing. I was also having a metallic taste in my mouth when I coughed.

So my neuro sent me for a chest x-ray to check it out and found some fluid on my lungs which suggested they were no longer absorbing the fluid, which we all know means it has to be moved. It didn't look like a whole lot of fluid, but enough that it needed to be moved. Well, my neuro told us he wanted to externalize the shunt before moving it to make sure the shunt was flowing ok. If it was flowing find he was just going to move it to either the jugular vein or subclavian vein, which ever he could get to easiest. Well, he proposed 3 possible dates(this was on a friday). He said we could either do it on wednesday(externalize it then and put it back on friday) or do it the following week. We at first were going to go for the following week, but my neuro didn't seem to happy about waiting that long and I was sick of the nausea, so we agreed that wednesday would be best. Well, I had the surgery to externalize it and when I got out I found out that instead of the small amount of fluid we thought was on my lungs it was between 2 and 3 liters! One of my lungs was partially collapsed as a result.

Anyways, externalizing my shunt was something I hope I never have to have done again!!! I was throwing up so much and I wasn't even eating! The nurses couldn't keep it regulated. Anyways, on friday, the shunt was flowing fine, so my neuro moved my shunt to the jugular vein.

So my question is what do I need to look out for? I have felt like my heart is acting a little weird since the surgery. Is that normal? Is it just adjusting? I guess I'm just wanting some help on things to think about, look for in case of a problem, or ask my neuro about when I have my stitches out on the 15th of this month. Thanks in advance for the help! ~Melissa~