KwiteKontrarie
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Ronna, You are NOT crazy! What you are feeling IS real. I've never met a surgeon, though, that will believe, or accept, this. Because shunt tubing is soft, stretchy, and wiggly like cooked spaghetti, someone who has never experienced a VP shunt personally will never believe that you can experience pain from a "wet noodle". The shunt tubing is free floating in your abdomen following placement. The tubing floats around and pokes and touches areas of your body that have NEVER felt "touch" before (other than during surgery). I knew a guy named Mark from another list that complained bitterly about his abdominal pain. His bladder would get poked. His intestines would get jabbed. He was in misery! I noted his comments and when I went in for surgery, I argued for a VA shunt (atrial shunt) because I didn't want the tubing to aggravate my Crohn's Disease. My surgeon, however, showed me the shunt, allowed me to play with one (it WAS soft and stretchy and it seemed "unoffensive"), and insisted that I wouldn't feel anything once it was placed and talked me into a VP shunt against my better judgement. No pain??? WRONG!!! I swear this "wet noodle" scraped my bladder! It was HORRIBLE! The worst was when it jabbed my diaphragm, which happened fairly often. It was awful! It felt like a skewer or sharp glass. But, my surgeon didn't believe it. This went on for several months until the tubing finally adhered somewhere. I've had no pain since. Hopefully, your pain will subside in a couple of months when the tubing finally finds a "final resting place". ~Mary Post edited by: KwiteKontrarie, at: 10/19/2008 20:23 |
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