I recently had a CAT scan and a false alarm. Part of me was hoping it was my shunt because now I don’t know why I’m having headaches and medicine does nothing even though I take a double dose. My neurosurgeon told me I could do that.
Anyway, I did a Google search on Hydrocephalus and found dailystrength.org
I’ve always liked finding people who understand what I live with. My story with shunt revisions is a bit of a long one but the short version:
Shunt at 2 days old

2nd revision at 3 months

5 when I was 4. My doctor put a short catheter in and that one lasted more than 10 years

We moved to Ga and found my current doctor. I would get headaches when I would change position, like sitting up or laying down. They’d last a few minutes–but were painful–then subside. 

I had my first shunt on my left side at 15. At the hospital, the doc drew on the mattress what he was going to do. My former doctor did the same. That was comforting.

About 4 months after that, I started getting bad–and I mean bad–headaches again. I went into the hospital in January of ’06. It’s number 9 and number 2 on the left side. Another doctor in the group did this one. He also put in a short catheter, those seem to work the best for me.

On my 17th birthday, I went back into the hospital. I already was sick during a Christmas so why not my birthday? lol When we got there and they put me in a room, before my surgery, the room had padded walls, a camera and blinds inside two layers of glass. haha
The doc that did this surgery was one my parents didn’t want doing my sergery two years before because he only had a couple years experience. Anyway he works with my current neurosurgeon and their team. Dad apologized profusely because of what he’d said when we first met.

And I consider this the short version haha.