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A message from Pixie-Elf


Kagemorou
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I'm out and finally at home.

Basically, we thought my shunt had been blocked. I was showing all the signs that something was wrong with it : Constant pressure headache, confusion, agitation, dizziness, vertigo, and vomiting/nausea.

So he decided to do a shunt tap, which is pretty simple. They numb you up, shove a needle into the shunt's valve, and draw off fluid to check for infection. (They can also measure your pressure if they choose.) It's SO much easier than a spinal tap.

At first, we thought they were just going to do that, then we found out no, Friday they were definitely going to open me up to check my abdomen.

My Neurosurgeon found a LOT of scar tissue / adhesions when he opened my abdomen up, blocking off the draining ability of the shunt. He told my Mom : "No wonder she was miserable."

He also said he moved the tubing upward in my body and that Sunday he'd x-ray me, and if it had stayed there, I'd get to go home.

If not...well, he was calling in a general surgeon to move the tubing to some place safer.

Either I or my Mom basically called him up and were like "HOLY SHIT, SURGERY NOW. so poor Kage was a little bit confused.  ;)

So this time I go to sleep...and wake up with a big huge incision on the left side of my body, instead of the usual one on my right. They had to tunnel from the right side, to move the tubing over to the left side.

I was also under suck heavy sedation, I was saying some pretty fecked up shit all through that night. I'll have to post it over in the need for a laugh thread, but one of the things that was a hit with everyone was I said

Me: "I like Johnson!"

Mom: "...What?"

Me: "I like the Johnson space center!!!" (Which is in Houston.)

One of my nurses informed another "This young lady REALLY likes Nasa."

So I finally fully wake up and kinda am in hell. The pain was pretty damned bad. Still is but I've got some pain killers. I think part of my problem is due to the fact that they used staples on me and my body HATES them.

Anyways, the good news is, my shunt is back to working properly! It'll take some time to heal up, but I'll get a little better each day.

I missed you guys, and am so thankful for my Kage for being willing to take the time and do this. <3

I love all of you, thank y'all for the good vibes and everything else!

Mystina

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Glad to see you back home, Pixie :)

cannot figure out what a shunt is, dictionaries are not clear on this

Its a device that drains excess fluid from her spinal fluid into a cavity in her abdomin in order to relieve pressure. This process is called shunting, and therefore the device itself is called a shunt.

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Ron: Thank you for the welcome home! I'm so glad to be back on the board.

Kage: No baby, we told you the day of the shunt surgery that Sunday if my tubing moved out of place I'd be having another surgery done. If it was fine, then I'd have gone home. Tara just posted about it because Mom made the mistake of calling her first, so she could get up to the hospital. She said she won't be doing that again!

Purple:The reason why you're having a hard time is likely due to the fact there are kidney shunts, heart shunts, etc that all do COMPLETELY different things what a lumbar shunt, or one in your head does.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumbar-peritoneal_shunt

LP is the type of shunt I have.

http://www.sophysa.com/fr/images_db/Figure07c-png24.png is a pretty good picture of what mine looks like. Except I've got a few more things attached to mine.

Spiny: Well, I also kinda forgot that Brain Surgery tends to make a person think / say weird things...

Last night Kage was telling me over the phone that WE, him and I, needed to go to bed.

Somehow my brain decided that the we might not have been me, and a male friend of ours must be staying over. There wasn't ANY logic involved there... Except I was like hmm..I guess when I make it to bed I'd best not call him, because they needed their sleep. I stayed up until like 4am I think.

When I told him he was like WTF? Mom was like LOL Brain surgery. :D I'm starting to suspect some of that wasn't the anesthesia. I was told when I first had my shunt put in it took 6 months for the brain to go back to 100% normal because at first it's response is "OMG, WTF? I can function like a normal brain? Uh...How do I do this exactly?"

So it's a bit confused. XD

Jeebs: It is, but I kinda signed up for it when I opted for the shunt. Everyone tells you the first surgery is HORRIBLE, the worst surgery they ever had. And me with CH thought "Pfft, they've never had a CH, this'll be EASY."

Oh LORD no. Not easy. Not easy at ALLLL. It's every bit as horrible as they warn you it is. The funny thing is though that given the chance to do it again, I'd 'd choose the shunt. It made my life so much better. But my God, I will tell anyone before they choose it to be prepared to go through hell.

I also know how lucky I am to have the family I do, and Kage. <3 They're a good part of what makes my life worth living. I'm also lucky to have all of you clusterbusters as a part of my family too. :)

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I also know how lucky I am to have the family I do, and Kage. <3 They're a good part of what makes my life worth living. I'm also lucky to have all of you clusterbusters as a part of my family too. :)

We're all lucky to have you too.  My life would be far poorer without you in it...

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