Who wants to learn about shunts?

Tuesday~June 9, 2009

As the mother of a lovely little guy with hydrocephalus, I'm quickly learning that it's hard to explain exactly how Asher's brain shunt works without visual aids. People do ask a lot of questions, and I don't mind that a bit. I'd especially love to help parents who are embarking on this "adventure" understand how it all works. It's much easier to deal with something when it's concrete in your mind and you know (mostly) what to expect.

People are often confused about what part of the contraption is actually doing the work, where the tubing goes, and whether or not all of these parts are on the inside or the outside of the body.

So first of all, for the most part, you can't see a thing...


Of course not, Heather, he's all covered up (and the cutest thing I've ever seen).



Oh, okay then. Even when he's NOT all covered up, you still can't really see much...

The valve itself is on your left, looking at this picture. It's just a slight bump above his ear from this angle (It sticks out quite a bit more from the back). That valve does have a tube connected to it that goes to the middle of Asher's brain where the ventricles are that were having trouble releasing spinal fluid. So it looks like this picture below...


I know it's really small, but that dark line is the tubing, and the brown thing in the middle of the black line is the valve. The tubing also continues down around to the front of Asher's neck and to his stomach. Like this...



If you go back up to the bare picture, you can see the tubing under his skin on his neck. You can't see (very well) in that picture, how the tubing does continue down to his belly, just above and to the side of his belly button. You can see the scar there from his surgery. That's where the tubing ends (and the spinal fluid is released into his abdomen and absorbed into his body-no, not his actual stomach, just his intestines). In his catscan, we can see all the tubing that's coiled up inside his body, waiting for him to grow. It will stretch as he does so that there's enough tubing. That part blows my mind, I'm not really even sure exactly where it's all sitting. It's a lot. I guess we have some extra space to store things in us, so in case you need to hide something, I'm sure there's room.

So yeah, them there's the basics.

I did answer more questions right after his surgery (will he always have to have a shunt? How often do they change it? How does this effect his development? Etc.) If you'd like more Noggin information from that post, you can click HERE.

If you are a parent (or loved one of any kind) of a child with hydrocephalus, I'd love to connect with you. Please feel free to leave a comment. Or you can email me (the address is in the sidebar).

Asher continues to do very well. He's still not talking much, but he sure does know how to get his message across. He seems to understand everything that's going on, what we're saying, and follows directions with no problems. Therefore, we're still choosing not to freak out. Most likely, he's a little behind from before his surgery and will catch up when he's ready. For now, when I ask him to go ahead and start talking so we can understand each other better, he just shakes his head violently and says "UH UGH." Well, OK then. Take your time, Ash Man. Take your time...