Quote:
Originally Posted by Jmeyers
I am 40 yrs old & had a vp shunt placed March 31st this yr. I really have not felt "great" since the surgery. I have good days & bad days. I seem to have alot of nausea and have had a headache for 9 days now. Not the squeezing type I had prior to surgery. My recovery was long and harder than what I expected. I still have not returned to work. I have not talked to anyone that has a shunt, just curious how it is for other adults. Wondering if I will ever be back to normal. I can't figure out how to post on here thats why I did this as a reply.
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I finally got a correct diagnosis 11/2010 after living with constant severe pressure pain in my head for over one year. I had many symptons one year prior to the pain in my head: constantly sleepy, hearing a clicking noise in my ear, numbness of face and head, confusion, mood swings, problems with walking and balance. I was diagnosed with Chiari I Malformation and Arnold's Chiari. Chiari will show up on a MRI if read correctly. After my Chiari diagnosis 11/2010, I had a MRI study of the spinal fluid in my head. That is when I was diagnosed a few days later with Arnold's Chiari. I had to immediately have a VP shunt put in my brain **(8 shunt surgeries from 11/10-10/11) that allows the spinal fluid to flow to my abdomen. That gave me immediate relief from the pressure pain in my head. However, it did not get rid of the pressure pain in my head when I sneezed, coughed, gagged, or laughed. In Feb. 2011 I had Chiari Decompression surgery to make the opening at the base of my brain larger. I also had to have some verterbrae removed to relieve the "brain tonsils" from being herniated through the small opening at the base of my skull which was causing the remaining pressure pain. This is a congenital condition and the doctors have no idea why I never had any problems from it until age 48. It took several years for this to be correctly diagnosed. I hope this information helps someone that may be having the same problem. Unfortunately my short and long term memory and my eyesight have been affected due to all the pressure to my brain. I still have some pain but at least now it is not constant pain. **nausea is my first sign that the shunt is now working correctly. I have had to have it repositioned, replaced due to malfuntion, and the tube in my abdomen became coiled which caused an infection that when to my brain(19 days in hospital that time). Don't wait...my long and short term memory has been affected. Find a neurologist that will listen to you and don't stop talking until you do. Hope I haven't scared you to death with my story but I want to be honest. God bless you.