hi, i have had a vp shunt for an arachnoid cyst i was 14 months old, it was then revised when i was 4 and i had no problems up until i was 16, apart form the few odd series of strenous headaches & sickness for about a year and a half.
On the 5th of september, i was admitted to great ormond street hospital after papilledema was discovered behind my right eye indicating intercranial pressure, that day i had an ICP tap inserted. i went into the op feeling absolutely fine, and i came out feeling just as well apart from the slight sting from where the wire was in my head. That evening i became very ill and had a very horrible headache, i became very irritable and was constantly being sick, there and then i got rushed down to theatre and had an emergency shunt revision after going into a comatose state.
After my op i came out feeling absolutely fine, no headache, no sickness...just a sore wound on my head and stomach. i got released two days after my op but continued to have a constant dull headache of the next five day until i came back for my post op check up. My headcahes should have resolved by now so i had a few scans and shunt series done confirming that my catheter in my stomach had spiralled form my peritoneal cavity. i was admitted once again and put into theatre about 2 hours later, where the opened up my previous scar and reinserted and repositioned the tube. An xray was done after my op and unfortunately the tube had done exactly the same once again and decided to spiral out due to scar tissue on a scar that had had surgery on so many times. so they operated the next morning and repositioned the tube about 2 inches below my previous scar.
Since that night of the operation i have had these dreadful stabbing pains in my lower abdomen...so far its been EVERYDAY for 53 days and counting.
Ive been back to GOSH, where they kept me in for 11 days doing numerous tests, ultrasounds, shunt tap procedure, stomach tap procedure, CT scans, Xrays and an MRI. The only thing they found was excess fluid in my abdomen due to my adhesions. the ultrasound showed this and also a collection of possible walled off ball of fluid (pseudocyst) on my RIGHT hand side by my hip. This is where my pain was hitting randomly during this time.
over the next few days the pain hovered around as it does and on the morning of my MRI scan, i got the pain on my left hand side. MRI showed that i had a cyst on my left hand side. this was put down to an ovarian cyst.
A general surgeon told my mum and myself that it couldnt be an ovarian cyst as i would be very tender in that area when he pushed against it, inwhich i wasnt.
neurosurgeons say the shunt is a red herring and not related to this pain...just seem strange that ive had the pain everyday without fail since the catheter was moved into a lower positioning in my abdomen.
They were discussing the possibility of the catheter irritating my abdomen and moving it to my left hand side of my stomach. but that plan went out the window after they found this 'cyst'. im now completely confused.
i have to see my GP and get referred to my local hospital for more tests to determine if that 'ovarian cyst' has gone and whether its actually one atall.(which i say must be the worst hospital possible!!)
i have to go back to GOSH in about 2-4 weeks for another ultrasound to see if the CSF fluid in my stomach has built up since my previous ultrasound. if so, this may detemrine the pain associated and they will have to cut out all my adhesions and do an exploratory op.
Is there anyone out there with the same problem?? (pain in lower abdomen from a vp shunt catheter surgery, like EVERY day since...intermittant random stabbing and slicing pains)
sorry its so long :|
thanks guys for reading
