Hello everyone,

I had my vp shunt installed 8 years ago at 27 years of age. For about 3 months afterward I experienced extreme nerve pains. The way I described them to the doctor was that it felt like a pulling downward on my testicles, a punch to my gut, and a sharp stabbing in my perenium/rectum. That is no exaggeration. Eventually they decided to laparoscopically cut 15mm off of the tube. The pains were gone 100%.

I just had a failure 6 weeks ago, requiring emergency revision. Since then I've had sharp pains on my left side approximately at my 5th rib and clavicle. There is some testicular soreness. I haven't ever seen complaints about pains as high as the clavicle. Anyone else ever experience this?

Welcome Rynohanley.

Well, back in the ER tonight. Yesterday my nerve pains persisted almost nonstop into this morning. My neurosurgeon and orthopedic surgeon seem to be doing whatever they can to convince me that they are not shunt related. They almost have me questioning my sanity.

Today, after telling him that I had been essentially paralyzed with pains in my ribs and clavicle for hours, the orthopedist again repeated that it didn't make sense and suggested that I wait for our next scheduled appointment. In THREE weeks. What angers me the most is that I've never been accusatory in the least towards him. If it's not shunt related, THEN AT LEAST ATTEMPT TO FIND OUT WHAT IS CAUSING IT.

I'm very sorry you're dealing with this pain.

I hope you are able to get answers and start feeling better fast.

You're right. Your doctors should be finding out the cause.

take care there.

Well, as I suspected, 8 hours in the ER later and I'm apparently fine. All tests and blood work looks good. So I guess I really must be imagining these pains. Or maybe it's for attention, or just to get drugs.

Or maybe they can take an hour to go in laparoscopically and move the tube that we all know is causing the pains that never existed until the surgery to install it.

I'm sorry. That's really awful for you.