hello my name is rebecca i am looking to find out more about hydrocephalous. i took my 3 month old daughter to her baby well check up appointment and her head circumferece had grown to much. they sent me to have an ultrasound done on her that same day and fount water on her brain .then we had to take her to Uof M in ann abor for an mri they descovered she had 3 to 4 times the amount of water on her brain. so then they did surgery on her and put a shunt in her head. she cant be around no magnets just wanting to find out things i need to know its so stressful and heartbrakeing

Hi beka and welcome to NeuroTalk. Here is the link to our Hydrocephalous Forum. http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum14.html

You find lots of good information and support there.

beka,

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk. Happy to see you have come to be with us. Here are a great number of dear friends to listen when you are in need of ears. Please let us know how we can help you out. You will find out we are supportive and relaxing place.

Have fun here just roaming around. Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Darlene

Hi Beka:

You sound like a wonderful, caring and compassionate mom. You little one is so lucky to have you taking care of her.

I just wanted to welcome you and tell you that you are in the right place. You have been given the right forum. I hope you get some answers.

You and your precious daughter are in my prayers and thoughts.

Please know that.

Melody

thanks so much

what are things that she cant be around thats magnetic she is only 3 months old

Does she have a programmable shunt?

[Programmable - The opening pressure of these shunts can be changed via an external magnet so that surgery is not necessary for a pressure change. There are two manufacturers of programmable shunts, Codman (a Johnson & Johnson Company) which has 18 different pressure settings and Medtronics which has 5. The one down-side of a programmable shunt is that large magnetic fields can change the pressure setting. As a result, if an MRI is needed the shunt will need to be reprogrammed immediately following the MRI. This does not mean that an MRI can't be done, it just means that you need to set up having the shunt reprogrammed ahead of time. Reprogramming is very simple, they just lay a device over the shunt and push a button, then use an x-ray to verify the setting. I have had several people ask about accidental reprogramming. This is incredibly rare and you can read more about this in a 7 year study about the overall performance of the Codman Hakim Programmable valve here. I do not have similar information on the Medtronics valve, if anyone has any such links please send them to me. ]
http://www.fetalhydrocephalus.com/hydro/shunts.aspx