My daughter has had a vp shunt since birth was diagnosed with hydrocepholus at birth. But the problem is lately since december of 2005 she had untethering of the spine done and every since then she has had terrible headaches that cause her pain in the front of her head and sometimes in the back, they can go on for days at a time without going away, and other times they stay for an hour or two. In 2006 she had numerous shunt revisions done, had another shunt put in the other side of her head. then in august of 2006 she had a shunt infection and we were in the hospital for 2 weeks then. She also had a skull expansion done in decembe rof 2006. Then recently we had a shunt put in her spine and also a shunt revision done. Nothing seems to help with her headaches to go away. They go away for a week or two after her surgeries and come right back. They have her on narcotics to try to take the pain away and that doesnt even help.. They also had her on pressure monitoring twice.. To me that was a joke because the first time the numbers were in the negative and the next time they were ova a hundred which they say she would have passed away if they were actually over a hundred. Im just wondering if anyone else has experianced anything like this. Or if you recommend any doctors Im just looking for anything right now. I hate to see my child in pain.

After all that, she could be overdraining. The frontal headache is a tell-tale sign. Also, when you say "in the back," do you mean in the back of her head or in her back? If she has frontal head pain with back pain, particularly tailbone, both are strongly suggestive of overdrainage. How do her ventricles look?


((((((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))))) to you both.

LIZARD

hiya, im not sure where you live, but at great ormond street hospital (london, UK) there are brilliant doctors.
Mr william harkness
mr dominic Thompson
professor ? hayward are three very well know neurosurgeons/consultants.
they are dealing with shunt problems all the time.

Mr harkness is my neurosurgeon, he is brilliant.

take care.