Anticipating surgery, worried about recovery time
 

Hello, I was born with hydrocephalus and had my first VP shunt implanted when I was about a year old, with a revision when I was around 2 years old, and I haven't had any problems at all until about a year ago. Now I'm 21, and very likely to be having either another revision or a replacement in the next couple weeks to try and correct some vision problems I've been having for a little over a year, and I'm wondering about how long it should take for me to recover enough to go back to life as usual, and how long before I can get back to rigorous physical activity (lifting weights, martial arts training) I know that recovery time depends on the person and everything, but I'm just trying to figure out a rough average.

Thanks in advance.

In my experience, it depends a lot on whether it is a "simple" revision or a complete (head+abdomen) replacement. When I had a complete replacement I was out of work for about 2 weeks and I didn't do any rigorous activity until my abdominal sutures were completely healed, about a month. But like you said, recovery time varies a lot.