Anyone else have (or had) a shunt?

[jimc]

I had an LP shunt that went from my spine into my abdomen for 9 months last year. It was inserted after my second craniotomy, but afterward, I still had CSF gushing out my nose, so a month later, they went back in and widened the shunt. The widened shunt reduced, but did not stop my leak, so I ended up having a third crani.

In November, the doctors removed the shunt because my leak seemed to be healed, and the shunt was acting like a spinal CSF leak. Every time I moved my head, a little CSF would come out the shunt, and it felt like someone had just hit me in the head with a hammer. If I bent over, enough CSF would leak out the shunt to give me the crushing headache you get from a spinal leak.

When the shunt was removed, my intercranial pressure increased, and I started leaking again. Or maybe I was leaking even with the shunt in, but it was a small enough leak that I couldn't really tell. In any case, except for spinal leak problem, I really felt a lot better when the shunt was in than I do now that the cranial leak is bigger and more active.

I'm thinking that maybe having a smaller (or better yet, a programmable) shunt inserted might help. Maybe it will reduce the ICP enough to let the leak site finally heal. Of course, that's what we thought with the first shunt, and it didn't seem to happen.

I'm wondering if anyone else has, or had, a shunt inserted as part of their treatment, whether it helped, and what side effects it caused.

Jim

[Concerned Gal]

i think dagaz has. i remember a post some time ago from someone saying "never ever ever get a shunt". you might want to try some of the first ever posts here. Good luck

[guineapig]

jimc, curious, did you feel a difference in symptoms when you moved your head (with shunt)? i found out that turning one's head to the side for a sustained amount of time increases csf pressure down the spine. i am guessing that the pressure of csf being circulated down the spine if it decreases does so less than that decrease in csf circulating back up the spine which is cut off more do to the twist in the cervical. i thought gravity might have magnified this, but i discovered this whilst laying down, spinal catheterized and hooked up to an inducer (measures csf pressure constantly).

other than you said so, doesn't it seem peculiar that bending over increases your spinal leak symptoms? why should hyperextending the back induce more csf to leak out a shunt which is no more open (?) for the bending over. oh what hapened to the days of just sticking one's finger in the hole in the dam.

i am not familiar enough with cranial leak or ich symptoms, so i find it interesting to read your comparison of your induced, yet real, spinal leak to your cranial one. "except for spinal leak problem, I really felt a lot better when the shunt was in than I do now that the cranial leak is bigger and more active": hubba, hubba! are the symptoms so different in extreme? and all this time i was thinking a spinal shunt could be the basis of some perverted horror flick.


In November, the doctors removed the shunt because my leak seemed to be healed, and the shunt was acting like a spinal CSF leak. Every time I moved my head, a little CSF would come out the shunt, and it felt like someone had just hit me in the head with a hammer. If I bent over, enough CSF would leak out the shunt to give me the crushing headache you get from a spinal leak.

When the shunt was removed, my intercranial pressure increased, and I started leaking again. Or maybe I was leaking even with the shunt in, but it was a small enough leak that I couldn't really tell. In any case, except for spinal leak problem, I really felt a lot better when the shunt was in than I do now that the cranial leak is bigger and more active.

[jimc]

guineapig, there was a thread (http://brain.hastypastry.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7025) a while back where someone asked about the difference in symptoms between cranial and spinal leaks. Several of us responded; you might check that for more info. For me, the main difference is that the spinal leak causes a really crushing headache, while the cranial leak causes more constant pressure in left side of my head. If I stay vertical too long, the cranial leak leads to a strong, throbbing headache. Both sets of symptoms are relieved by lying down.

As for a difference in symptoms when I moved my head, the answer is that every time I turned my head even a little, it felt like someone was rapping me in the head with a ball-peen hammer. It got to the point where I didn't even really notice it, except that getting hit in the head by a hammer 100 times a day really wears you down. But when the shunt was removed and that no longer happened, I noticed that for awhile, I was cringing every time I moved my head, because I was expecting the pain.

The problems caused by bending over were never really understood, but they too stopped when the shunt was removed. The weird thing was that the result was so out of proportion to the cause. I would bend over for a few seconds, and then feel really crummy for anywhere from 2-3 days to 2-3 weeks.

Jim

[dagaz]

Hey sorry about the Crap your going through... JIMC Getting a shunt just added to my NIGHTMARE!!! I like you started with a lumbar shunt after my 3rd
brain surgery a Bi frontal craniotomy. That was pure torture. I am on my 6th or 7th shunt I can't remember.

For your neuro to remove your shunt after he felt your leak was healed was a huge mistake. Why would he do that if it was working? However I must say no shunt has ever worked to stop my leak and I ended up with hydrocephalus (water on the brain) after my 13th surgery which was a craniofacial craniotomy and a shunt revision ... the cause was from a ventricular hemorrhage . I have had a total of 15 brain surgeries !!! I cannot live with out a shunt now, if I could go back and never have had one put in, I wouldn't.

Before I ended up with hydro and even once in a while when my shunt is over draining when I moved my head quickly I am sure I can feel my CSF moving. It feels terrible and like you once this happens I don't feel quite right.

Programmable shunt are based on magnets, the fridge magnet can mess them up, speakers or any other strong magnet. One cannot have an MRI with a Programmable shunt. Mine malfunctioned almost immediately as they often do... I wouldn't get another one.

If you want to talk more or if you have more questions E-Mail me at consasia@telus.net