Well I guess I just need to hear its going to be okay.
Things in the past 6 weeks have been hell. I had a LP Shunt put in the 18th of May. I woke up out of surgery with a little pain but nothing as bad as what I had been feeling. That night I remember calling the nurse in because I was freaked out because I didn't have a headache and no sound in my ears bothering her. I remember saying is this normal? Am I okay? And she just smiled and say yup this is what its to feel like with no pain :) And I just cried because for the first time in 8 years I had no pain in my head... NONE! I went home two days after my surgery and was doing great! My dad left town after 3 days of being out of the hospital and I was staying with a friend that offered to just take care of me. Well things were seriously great until the 27th of May.... only 10 days after my surgery in the middle of the night I felt something rip in my back and the pain was horrible and I couldn't really move and my friend ended up having to call an ambulance because I passed out from the pain. I get to the hospital and they told me it was a Kidney infection and sent me home. My dad flew out that next morning to be with me. The next day after I left the hospital my back had been leaking fluid through my incision. We called the doctor and it was Sunday and they said go to the hospital right away and he was going to call and have me admitted. I get there and he is already in my room waiting and looks at my back and said that its spinal fluid leaking out. He said what they were going to have to do was take the shunt out and replace it he thought. I was getting test done all through the night. It was just the PA checking on me until Tuesday and my surgeon walks in and says well bad news. We have to take the shunt out and we are not going to be able to put it back in because you have staph and meningitis and another infection we can't identify. He took me right into surgery to remove the shunt. He said I would be in the hospital until Saturday and they would let me leave then. They started me on strong antibiotics and I was throwing up non-stop and the worst thing I think was when I woke up from surgery the headache was back and it was horrible. Needless to say Saturday comes and I'm getting into the wheel chair to leave an the on call PA walks in and said she wanted to check my back really quick and it started leaking spinal fluid again. So I was put on bedrest and laying flat. I had another surgery to put stitches in my spine where it is leaking. Still leaked more and more. I was on bedrest and laying flat for 2 weeks and still had the meningitis which I feel like was the worst pain I've ever felt.

I'm out of the hospital now and just went to the doctor today and they took me off my iv antibiotics and pulled my picc line out (which is good!) and said I'm in remission of the meningitis.

They want to put in a VP shunt next. But I have a hard time wanting to do that with everything that I went through this time. I guess I need to hear some type of encouraging words to know that its going to be okay and worth holding on. Its truly been the worst battle I've ever been through. Getting meningitis was never a thought and a 3 week hospital stay was never a thought either. The only good thing was I had EXCELLENT care from my nurses and doctors and I definitely feel like I was blessed from that.

Question is do I go for the VP Shunt and risk it all again? I think I know the answer is yes because I can't live with this pain anymore, but need to hear a positive story I guess.

Sorry for writing so much... just wanting to connect with other people and see if anyone can relate or tell me that they had luck with the VP Shunt.

Thanks,
Sarah