I remember my first shunt revision at 11 was not easy (besides being a
surprise to us) I was not allowed to sit up for the first 2 days and
then couldn't get up for a week within getting not only sick to my
stomach but also dizzy. My headaches in fact did not go away right
away but got somewhat worse for a few months... although they
determined that the shunt surgery was successful but that the shunt
was working on overtime which is why my headaches got worse for a time
until it evened out.

All of the surgeries that followed - starting when i was 20 were
different. Things had changed in the medical field in terms of
their techniques -- I was allowed to get up almost within hours of
surgery. I also was allowed to go home the following day after surgery
(except for when i had the infection)!

When I had the infection they changed my shunt tubing as soon as it
was discovered. They then started me on antibiotics for two weeks in
which i was in the hospital the entire time until they then changed
the entire shunt - tubing, valve and all. I went home the following
day after that 2nd surgery but on an IV so i could continue the
antibiotics they had been giving me for the 2 weeks. I only had to be
on that for another week before I was allowed to go back to college
out of state.

Things have changed not only in recovery time but techniques as well
--- when i was little i had a big scar on my stomach from the shunt
surgery and when they did my first revision they made another.
However, since my revision at 20 they made one more tiny scar and that
was it. All of my subsequent surgeries afterwards (6) they have used
the same tiny scar.

None of my revisions have been planned -- in fact whenever it's been
discovered that my shunt's not working right (although it may have
taken me a few weeks to realize it and to finally call the nsg) I have
had emergency revision surgery the next day.

Sorry for the long post back. I do hope that some day (sooner rather
than later) they create a shunt that won't malfunction. Also hope we
can come up with a migraine cure for all the headaches many of us get.

Elana

--- In hydrocephalus@yahoogroups.com, "Ugly Person" <ugly@...> wrote:
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "elana_schwartz" <elana_schwartz@...>
> To: <hydrocephalus@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 9:35 PM
> Subject: [hydrocephalus] Re: Elana/revisions?
>
>
> > For me, my first revision was when i was 11 and it was because
> > I had outgrown the shunt tubing and they had to lengthen it.
>
> Oh the pain!
>
> Well, I hope it went better for you than it did for me.
> I too was 11, but turned 12 before I had the PLANNED revision. First and
> only one.
> Didn't work. I spent two months in three different hospitals with eight
> revisions that year (1979).
> A nightmare. There has to be a better way.
>

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