Shunt Adjustment Update

So, it's been a week since I had my shunt adjustment down to 140 from 150.  How am I doing?  Well, although there have not been huge differences....there have been some small ones -- positive ones.  I just don't know what to make of it....I don't know if this is as good as it's going to get, or if I can expect even more good things to come.  Here, I have had my shunt pressure adjusted so many times over the years, yet I feel like this is one of the first times.  I don't know what to expect, and I feel apprehensive about what's already happened....which isn't a whole lot.

I think I had expected there to be a much bigger, more noticeable change.  I not only expected it, but had a lot of hope.  I have been dying for things like; this numbness I get throughout my body, to disappear.  But it hasn't -- not yet.  I had hoped that this extreme tiredness I get after I eat, to go away.  But I still get it.  I had hoped that this very odd problem of not being able to sleep on my back or left side, would disappear.  It feels like I am having a little seizure if I fall asleep on those sides.  I can lay on those sides, but not go to sleep, or it feels as if I am having a little seizure.  I can only sleep on my right side, and I have been for a few years now, so have been anxious to get back to being able to sleep on those other sides.  My right side -- especially my hip, has been hurting something awful.  Just aches and aches, and wakes me up in the night.

I just have so many things I had hoped would correct over time as my pressure was lower, and really, the only main difference is that "if" I get enough sleep, then I will feel a little more "with it" during the day.  I feel more, "in-the-moment" rather than like I'm so much in a fog.  But I am not giving up hope or faith yet.  I feel like.....over more time, some more things will straighten out.  I keep trying to remind myself that my brain has had all this extra pressure on it for quite some time now, so it not only takes time for the extra pressure to get off the brain, but then some things have to heal once the pressure "is" off.

A waiting game.  That's what this is.  Although I've gotten better at waiting, in general, over the years -- waiting for this or that, I would still classify  myself as an "instant gratification" person.  But when it comes to wanting to, and needing to "feel" better....yea, I want instant results.  I feel like I've waited long enough!

So, I will post as I have results.  Please....keep me in your prayers.  Pray for good results and in a timely manner, too.  And thanks!  God Bless.

Shunt Adjustment Coming Up Tomorrow!

Well, tomorrow is the big day!  I get my shunt pressure lowered.  I have a Codman Programmable Shunt, and have had this procedure more times than I can count, yet I am as nervous as if it were my first.  Mainly because I have felt so bad lately and am deathly afraid of getting my pressure too low and making things worse. 

I have not felt well in a long while....just all kinds of unnerving symptoms; from numbness throughout my body, where my extremeties feel cold all the time -- especially when I touch them. And when even just luke warm water hits my body, it stings. It feels like needles are being pushed into my skin....all over.

I also have this strange sensation or issue, when I sleep on my left side and back.  I can "lay" on those sides, but to actually fall asleep on those sides, I will get this weird issue where it's like I'm having a seizure.  I have gotten to where I can feel it start to happen, and I'll usually wake myself up quickly....usually.  And the second I come-to, even just a little, I can stop the process of this unnerving symptom.  But it's frightening when it happens, because I will start "spinning."  I get so dizzy and get so weak and off-balance that I cannot walk for a while after it happens, or I am sure to fall.  And I'll stay dizzy for a while, too.

I started sleeping on my right side, and have been doing that so long that I don't move at all anymore.  I never wake up on my back or left side.  I just stay on my right side, all night, and to the point where my right hip hurts something terrible these days.  I feel like I have sciatica in that hip now, and have to use a heating pad on it at night.  Just so many issues I live with these days, so am praying hard, and hopeful that going down in pressure will help relieve a lot of the issues I live with....if not, all of them.  There are many more, but those are the main ones and the biggest ones.  I have often wondered if I am having Nocturnral Seizures.  Without another sleep study, it's hard to say.

I will post more updates as everything unfolds, to let you know how it works out for me.  Please, if you pray; then pray for me to get through this, and that the lowering is successful.  That it does not yield negative effects on me, but good, positive ones. I pray that the pressure doesn't end up being too low to where I have to be on my back, and have to somehow get back to Duke, to get it raised again. That could be miserable, scary, and hard for me to deal with - trying to get all the way back to Duke when I'm in that state, or condition.  I don't drive well these days, so could not drive there on my own.  I try to keep my driving to only close-by places.

Anyways, fingers crossed, and extra prayers. I am cautiously optomistic. Nervous.....and cautiously optomistic.