And the Rest of the Story Part II

Okay people you are about to be bombarded with blog post so don't say you were not warned....

Okay?.....Okay....

I have some exciting news, well exciting to me anyway so just sit there and pretend to act excited...Deal?...Deal

Continued form last post

We headed into Rex on March 6th and I got prepped for surgery. I was a ball of nerves...Hell who would not be.

Lets face it I am letting them cut open my head..willingly

We head into the operating room and they give me those nice sleepy meds.....zzzzzzzz I go

When I wake up what do you think my first reaction is?

Come on now, play along...guess

I looked around for someone I knew........nope
I tried to stand up...nope
I tried to talk...nope

The correct answer would be, I felt my head and realized that the Doctor has shaved, yes shaved part of my hair. EEKKKKKKKK!!!!!

Now in retrospect, it is a totally vanity thing and I have very long hair and unless I wear it down, which by the way aint gonna happen, so don't expect it, you cant tell that I am missing a three inch wide section of hair.

Now why it never dawned on me that he would have to do this, heaven only knows. But the hair thing is a mute point know as we all know it will grow back and like I said, none of you are ever, I mean EVER going to see the shaved head side of me, trust me its not a pretty site.

So I was placed in step down ICU and that was another shock, what the heck.
I think I still had not come to terms that this was Brain Surgery. I still don't think I have.

I was released the next day and was hopeful that all the pain in my head would be gone.

Right?

Wrong?

Everyday since the shunt placement my head has hurt. Sometimes it only hurts a little others it feels like Fat Albert is jumping on it constantly.

Everyday brings new issues, new symptoms, new challenges....sigh.....


The shunt I have placed was put into my head. It almost feels (to me) like a golf ball has become stuck inside my skull. They then attached tubing to the shunt and ran it down my neck, past the collar bone and it end in my abdomen where the excess spinal fluid drain.

If you did not stop reading, or need a cold cloth, or just threw up a little, take a moment I will wait.

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Okay wait over

The initial setting (from surgery) they put the shunt on was 8 (remember my initial pressure was 43 and normal is 20) and I was still having issues so I went in and had it adjusted.

Adjusted..what the hay, how do you have it adjusted.

Well , by George, it is an adjustable shunt. The Neurosurgeon has a device he places on my head and he can adjust the pressure up or down.

So I had it adjusted to 14-15 which now I fear is to high.

As of today my stitches are out of my head and my abdomen.

I still battle the head pain....daily
My ears fill like I am underwater all the time.
I am dizzy constantly, standing up or sitting down
My peripheral vision, down and to the left has now started to blur
The left side of my face is numb as it has been since the end of January
I don't sleep
My left side has pain that comes and goes
I have searing head pain sometimes that feels like a hot pan has been placed on my head
I have trouble with nausea and vomiting that comes and goes as it pleases.


So the shunt was not a be all end all fix and in fact a shunt is only 50% of the fix most of the time in patients.

I am now learning a lot and while the above seems scary and horrible I have found that others with my condition experience the same thing.

Now for the next post and some awesome, exciting news.