[Laura's mom]

Hi:
My 17 year old daughter has had a VP shunt since age 3mths. It had been 11 years since her last revision. In December it was necissary to replace the catheter which was blocked. Since the surgery she has been complaining about persistant headaches. They are not being helped by taking either Advil or Tylenol. Is this normal? The site is sore to touch at one end but not red or oosing.
Can these be caused by weather changes?

All I know is that everytime I have taken her down to have shunt checked
(3 times since surgery) they have said there was no change in the CT.
I'm not sure what to tell her!

[lezliej]

Originally Posted by Laura's mom

Hi:
My 17 year old daughter has had a VP shunt since age 3mths. It had been 11 years since her last revision. In December it was necissary to replace the catheter which was blocked. Since the surgery she has been complaining about persistant headaches. They are not being helped by taking either Advil or Tylenol. Is this normal? The site is sore to touch at one end but not red or oosing.
Can these be caused by weather changes?

All I know is that everytime I have taken her down to have shunt checked
(3 times since surgery) they have said there was no change in the CT.
I'm not sure what to tell her!

My 16 year old daughter just had her whole system replaced. Her last revision was 6 years ago. At that time she had severe headaches however the CT scans showed no problems with the shunt. After 8 weeks and no answers I finally DEMANDED a specialist of some sort. 'My gut' which is the best guage you will ever have....said that it was the shunt!

We went to an Opthamologist....he looked in the back of her eye (without even dialiating them) and she had sever swelling )papliedema in the back of her eyes. We went into emergency surgery. It WAS the shunt....had we waited they said she could have lost her sight completely.

Go with your gut and continue asking questions. I'd suggest seeing an opthamologist to rule out the build up of pressure.

Good luck!