I am thankful to have found this forum and all of the posts regarding VP shunts. I received my first VP shunt a month ago at the age of 35. I guess I am blessed to say that so far I haven't had much problem with my shunt. I have been experiencing a little abdominal pain and some headaches (especially when standing and bending over), but nothing unbearable...yet! I received my shunt after I had a spontaneous CSF leak from my sinus cavity. In all of the testing to determine why I had the leak, the docs determined that I had some issues of hydrocephalus and said the shunt was necessary to prevent future leaks. It was my second spontaneous CSF leak in 4 years. What's weird is that I never had headaches or any signs (that I know of) of hydrocephalus. I read these VP shunt horror stories and I worry. Was it best to trade an occasional CSF leak for a permanent shunt with so many possible problems. My doctors assured me that it was necessary. I just hope they are right! I wish you all the best with your VP shunts. Please continue to post your progress as it is very helpful to me as a new shunt-ee.

I can imagine finding out that you have to have a shunt at 35 is scary. So is having to have one replaced.
I'm 29 years old and have had a V.P. Shunt since I was six weeks old after complications of being born. I had an obstruction in the tubing in the abdomen around age 12 and had to have extra tubing added. In April of 2004, I had an eight pound cyst attached to the end of the tubing that had to be drained. In the summer of 2005, I had three different surgeries....first one like in '04, second to externalize the shunt and third to be put back in. The doctor I had at that time said if it didn't work then we would have to do a V.A. shunt. He was out of town in January of '06 when I had more problems...come to find out the shunt was disintegrating in my head. So the doctor that I have now put in a programmable V.P. shunt. I had two more surgeries in my head in march of that year and hadn't had any major problems until recently. I'm showing some signs of problems, but some of the signs that I used to associate with shunt malfunctions aren't there. I've had the flow adjusted and I was good for one day. Later that evening I started having problems again. I had a CT done on thursday last week and was told that my doctor only looks at the scans on tuesdays and thursdays but that my scans weren't in yet. I've on the couch for the whole holiday weekend. It really sucks. Sorry for ranting, but if I'm not supposed to have problems like this, why am I?