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Hi, my name is Ginger. My husband had a car accident in 2004 which busted his head open. He started stuttering, having severe headaches, ringing in the ears and confusment. This was over a 3 year period so I kept making excuses why he was doing these things (he was tired, excited, stressed etc.)
Finally it got so bad that I made him go to the doctor in 2007. Turns out he had hydrocephlus and needed a shunt. So far, this shunt doesn't seem to be working. He is still having all these same symptoms, some are much worse and he has totally lost his short term memory. Does anyone else suffer with these symptoms. I wonder that he went so long with this being untreated that maybe it caused permanant damage. The NS we are dealing with is not giving us any answers. They've took away my husband's drivers license due to seizures. We had to switch doctor's just to be able to get another CT scan. He hasn't had one in a year 1/2. (not since 1 month after the surgery) Aren't you supposed to have one about every 6 months? Can anyone help us. We are desparate for someone to understand what we are going through. Some of the doctors we have seen, treat us as though we're crazy.
~Ginirae

I am so sorry for all that as happened. Doctors these days go by the book. they do not understand that there are poeple who are not book cases. on the CT if you have hydrocephulas you are sapost to get a ct once a year, but the older patients seem to get forgotten about. I have short term memory lost too due to the extent of the pressure on the brain for so long. if the shunt is not helping then he might not have hydrocephulus or they might need to control how much fluid is drained off the brain because too much fluid drained off teh brain can cause the same problem.
I have been dealing with the shunt since 1989/1990 to 2000 and again 2006 to the present
I will try to help if i can

Rachel,
Thank you so much for the reply. I am so glad I found this website. It sounds like you've had a long road of dealing with this too. I had never even heard of this type of thing until it happened. How long did you have the pressure before it was discovered? Are you able to work with this condition? My husband was self employed with a thriving business until this year. It's gotten so bad that he can't work. The doctor's have even told us to apply for Social Security disability. The doctor called today and said the CT scan he had done last week came back showing that the shunt isn't working. So here we go again. Have you had multiple shunts?
~Ginger