Wednesday March 9 2011, I undergo yet another shunt revision.
Jeff drives Tiffany and myself to Rush in Chicago. If your counting this is surgery #12...
A programmable shunt is NORMALLY used as a Brain Shunt. Recently is has been approved to be placed in the abdomen. (So my Neurosurgeon says) I think they need to go back to the drawing board on that decision. A programmable shunt cannot be secured deep into the fascia, it has to remain close to the skin for it to be programmed by a handheld magnetic device. So basically it's free floating in the flank area.
I have thought that this shunt has been malfunctioning from the get go... BUT I do not have MD after my name! Maybe soon I'll have PhD after my name, LOL...
This programmable shunt WAS malfunctioning. After surgery Dr. Munoz tells my husband that the shunt was "flipped/turned over". Which I guess supports why it wasn't being programmed properly... I get that it can happen, being that it's not secured down. BUT if it was just flipped over, then the tubing would of closed off on both ends of the shunt. To view this shunt click the link below.
http://www.medtronic.com/your-health/hydrocephalus/device/our-shunts/strata-valves/index.htm
So at each end of the shunt there is tubing. One side the tubing goes into my spine, the other side drains the fluid to my peritoneum. In my mind, if the shunt is flipped over, that means the tubing is now twisted, on both ends... Makes sense, right? Which means, if it's twisted, then I would be having High Pressure Headaches because it cannot drain any fluid, RIGHT? Apparently not the case, because whatever was happening with that shunt, (Which I KNEW all along was not working right) it was draining ALL of my CSF and causing me to have LOW (hypotension) pressure headaches. ~ I don't know... The whole things just makes me crazy ~
I was kept over night for observation, and discharged from the hospital the next day. It took a few days for me to even feel human again. Not to mention MORE staples, I hadn't even gotten the other staples out yet...
I do love my Neurosurgeon, but this concerns me, alot. When I had my post-op appointment, his explanation was it was flipped over, because it couldn't be anchored, and well... these things happen. I took it out and put in a regular Delta Valve 1.5 and that can be secured deep in the fascia.
~ I still do not understand WHY it caused the low pressure...
But having a low pressure headache for 6 days has aggravated my Chiari. I have been miserable since the episode. Thank God I don't have the hypotension inside my skull, but if I'm standing up of sitting straight up for too long, my whole head kills, the back of my head where I had the decompression surgery is very painful. This is why it is taking my so long to get these blogs up. I can only sit at the computer for short periods at time, if at all on most days.
I feel I REALLY need to do some research regarding this last incident. It's just is not settling right with me...
After reading my MRI reports since May 2010 (when I came out of remission) I have found that the ventricles in my brain were collapsed then...
I have been trying to write this post for days, and here I am sitting at the computer AGAIN "thinking too much" I may just have to leave this post, just the way it is.
It's been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come!
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