Hi All,
For the past month mom has been in the hospital, and no one can seem to find out whats wrong. She has a VP shunt(programmable), shunt studies are fine pressure 17, lumbar puncture shows no infection, shunt xrays normal, CAT scan of head unchanged as well as having a CAT scan of neck, chest and abdomen all negative, no infection in her blood, chest xray shows no pneumonia. She is soooooooooooo lethargic, she barely talks or opens her eyes and we can't figure out why. It all seems so neuro. Also theres no bladder infection. Can your shunt appear in all tests to be functioning but really isn't? We are now waiting for an MRI of her brain to be done, I just don't know!! They even checked her thyroid studies and at one point they were high, but now normal. I just thought I would put this out there because sometimes someone has experienced situations like this and can give great advice. Thanks.
Smitty

hi there, im so sorry to hear that your mum is poorly =(

Each time i have had a shunt malfunction, I had no evidence of there being any problems from the tests that were done. which included
numerous CT scans.
Shunt series.
ICP monitoring
Shunt tap etc.

I was admitted to hospital after the opthamologist found pressure on my optic nerve, which was completely unexpected as i felt fine for weeks and weeks. So i was fitted with a ICP monitor the next day...whilst under surgery for that, they tapped my shunt, i had no pressure and no infection.
But hours after that surgery, i showed the physical sides of shunt malfunction, vomiting, irritability, photophoebia, headache, gripping shunt pains, then gradually lost conciousness and my heart rate fell to 35bpm!! which is well past resuscitation rate according to nurses. When this happened, it was obviously signs of shunt malfunction, this is when i was rushed to a emergency CT scan of my head, which quite rightly should have shown pressure or change. it didnt, atall.
I was taken into emergency surgery and the only evidence that there was pressure was the fact that when they drilled the burr hole, fluid flew metres across the theatre at a pulsing rate, where it was at such high pressure.:O

Im telling you, your mother and you know when its a shunt problem, its your gut instinct, each time i was ruled out for my problem being shunt related i knew it was infact the shunt!
&& well those problems resembled that day i went into the coma state. But believe me, you will know.

My hopes are with you and hope your mother gets sorted out real soon, i wish her the best of luck in getting well. =) stay strong.