Mr. Pokey Tube
 

Thanks a lot SJP. I stated I hadn't had the discomfort you discribed since my last surgery. Well guess what. Mr. Pokey Tube was diggin' at my right side this evening when I left work. It stayed with me for my commute (all of 13 minutes) and while preparing supper, but I don't notice it now. P.S. the screen name is first and first three of last name. It should be morning by the time you read this. I hope you had a restful night.

Thanks for the nice thoughs.... I did wake up nice and refreashed, but the seccond I moved, the dull pain came went int effect.

And no, I am wrong to who you may have been...... I just thought I woulk ask because I found it pretty interesting.

Thanks again. (Twiddling my thumbs and trying to tame my dog and her cusins (my two sisters are here with thier dogs) as calm as possible... Thank goodness it's a day where they can't get into too much trouble because they are used to being indoors and outdoors.)

I'll keep you all posted. (BTW. If I lean in a little so I am not sitting entirely back in my chair, it's "tolerable".)

Oh yeah, of course, take care! :)
Thanks again!

vp shunt
 

hi,

ive been searching all over google the last few days looking up these symptoms as i have my shunt tubing replaced 2 weeks ago and since the night of the operation ive been getting horrible pains in my lower abdominal area, little stabbing from the inside and then it drags across. its nasty!
and i know it sounds crude but it feels like gas at times and the pain goes through me!

after finding a forum on a different website there were several people on there discussing all the same pains after having their shunts, && after them seeing their neurosurgeon they have all been advised that its their tubing poking them or hitting a nerve.

there were a few cases of a couple of them having to have their VP shunt converted to a VA shunt where the tubing goes into the heart instead of the stomach. others just hope for it to migrate itself and others have had surgery to have the tubing moved to another part of the peritoneal.

i would get it checked out though as it may not be the tube just poking you, its possible that the fluid has formed a pseudocyst where the fluid has built up in the same spot and made a sack causing a cyst...i dont mean to sound doom and gloom, ive just been thinking bout these possibilites about yself so thought ild share them with the people sharing similar disomfort.

im currently on holiday in spain for 2 weeks, so if my pains are still there as they have been for 2 weeks, then im off to great ormond street to see if my theory is correct. lol.

good luck hun xx

Does a psedocyst do that... cause intermittent pains?

tbh thats what i wanna know too, because my pains are intermittent aswell.

do your pains just occur randomly out of the blue and when they strat they last on and off for a few minutes?

my ward at great ormond street seem to be sticking to their guns about it being just healing pains

but surely they wouldnt be intermittant pains would they? and they wouldnt be affecting my lower abdominal areas like the colon and cervical area too...that nerves being hit on surely.

i must insist on a CT scan very soon, they always give me them when i dont need them so surely they should give me one when im requesting it!! lol.

will let you know if anything gets found =]

yes


Are you talking to me?

Ive just came out of hospital at great ormond street after 11 days of tests about this pain, i have still got it EVERYDAY since 13th sep (my last op)

ive had the whole series of tests done.
Shutn tap, stomach tap, stomach fluid extraction for infection, ct scans, shunt series, ultrasounds and an MRI.

all that showed up was excess fluid due to adhesions in my stomach...therefore my abdomen isnt quite draining as much as it should (although this may not be the cause of pain)

on the ultrasound they found a cyst like image on the area of pain at that specific time of day. a stomach tap was done under local aneasthetic into this collection of fluid and tested for infection which came back as clear.

now this is what puzzled me...i carried on with pain in that area as normal for a day or so...then over the next few days i got pain in the opposite side, i had an MRI done and some cyst had shown on on the site of pain. due to this shadowing my ovary...that have put this down to being an ovarian cyst.

of course im not satisfied with this because it just doesnt make sense!

neurosurgeons were happy to turn round and say these cysts are not shunt related and the shunt is a 'red herring.'
it was only days before this that they were saying 'this could be down to the tube irritating the abdomen' 'this may be a pseudo or benine cyst'

so im back in a month for another ultrasound to see if there is a build of of fluid and to see if that cyst has gone - if its an ovarian cyst it should have gone, if not im guessing pseudocyst is still on the agenda. if none of these seem possible then it could be the tube irritating.
if the fluid in my abdomen has built up then the pockets caused by the adhesions in my stomach will be cut out and an exploratory will be done to sort this out.

all this stuff if doing my head in. one thing to another.

Jaidee, I had a big problem with pseudo cysts that kept coming back. I had one drained and within 6 weeks I had another one causing stomach pain once again. My neuro told me it was due to the scar tissue in my stomach from the shunt related surgeries(there had been 2). He ended up moving my shunt from the stomach to the pleural cavity(Jan 2007) and since then I haven't had any more pain like that.

When any of you guys have this... do you have a rush of the need to use the bathroom.... I THINK there is a pattern here with this type of pain.

oh i see, im back at great ormond street next monday to finalise my neurosurgeons suggestion of converting my VP shunt to a VA shunt, due to my peritoneum not absorbing the fluid as well as it should do as shown up by mulitple ultrasounds, so into the heart the catheter will go. it comes with its risks of major infection of the blood stream, but im willing to take that risk because when this stomach pain starts, bloody hell i could cry my eyeball out!!
after reading up about this, i found that the excessive fluid in the abdomen is called Ascites. this is suppose to be a VERY rare complication caused by VP shunts but it is known. In most of these cases the VP shunt get moved into the Pleural cavity or the heart, symptons are suppose to resolve straight away.

i dont get the need for the bathroom, but i think ive noticed a pattern, although im not quite sure...but i think my pain starts to get a bit stronger on an empty bowel and bladder. although not always.

i cant wait for this pain to resolve, i have had this pain now for 90 days more or less. its a total joke.

:) hope you get sorted soon x