First Adjustment

Well it has been a little over 7 weeks since my LP shunt surgery and while I hoped and prayed this was going to be the answer,  now wish I would have never had it put in, in the first place!!!

My symptoms have all returned with an angry vengeance and are becoming less and less bearable. My head hurts so bad that I am wondering if is not worse now than it was prior to having the shunt put in. With Corey working out of town that leaves me to take care of the house and kids by myself and it is virtually impossible to do so while feeling the way I do.

I had my first adjustment to the valve on Monday at the Neuro's office. It took the PA about 15 min and was completely painless. She simply took this magnetic machine and moved it across the incision site, on my back, that then changed the setting of the valve. They turned down the setting, therefore allowing more fluid to be released through the shunt. Now the pressure will not have to get so high before it starts to drain. However, changing the setting is like starting all over again.

Over the last week I have been running a fever off and on, have severe low pressure headaches and the incision sites on both my stomach and back are swollen. My back looks like someone surgically inserted a grapefruit under my skin. It is so big and so tight that I am afraid it is going to rupture. I can not lay flat because it hurts extremely so bad. My stomach looks like I ready to birth a small elephant, but only on the right side. I have gained 12 pounds since the surgery and its all fluid retention. For some reason my abdominal cavity is not absorbing the fluid like it is supposed to.Words can not even begin to describe how uncomfortable I am right now.

When I saw the neurosurgeons PA last week I was told that sometimes it takes longer for your body to adjust and not everyone reacts the same as others to having the LP shunt. The fluid is not draining properly through the tubing and instead is accumulating around the valve (back) and incision site on my stomach. She immediately sent me to have an X-Ray to ensure the tubing was not tangled. I heard back from them two days later saying that the shunt itself looks good and if the fluid does not begin to subside they will do an abdominal ultrasound which will be able to provide more answers than the X-Ray can. I am not sure if they can see if the shunt is blocked through the X-Ray or not, I guess I will know soon enough. I was able to look at the X-Ray and I have to say I was shocked at the amount of tubing that is in my stomach. It look like a ball of yarn shoved into my abdomen. Even the X-Ray tech was taken back by the amount of tubing in there. As gross as it sounds, I have to admit it looked pretty cool!! :)

I did return back to work, part time, about three weeks after the surgery and now I am beginning to think I jumped the gun (as I often do). Simple tasks like sitting up are requiring far to much energy. I am so tired after being up for just a few hours and am then required to lay flat for several hours. This is making it very difficult to accomplish anything and unfortunately everyone and everything in my life is being neglected right now.

I hope that my doctors are right and eventually my body will get adjusted to this new device and I will begin to feel the relief I hoped and prayed would come. For now I will continue to suffer through the non-stop  pain and do the best I can with the cards I have been dealt.