Spiritual Slide Shows

This isn’t a big news item, but asking rhetorically, whenever you have something done to your body, aren’t you the least bit curious how your new "enhancements" work? Shunts have been around for a while, but my neurosurgeon really likes the variety that he uses. Here’s why:

The main goal of a shunt that is inserted in a body is to move fluid from one area to another. In the case of a hydrocephalus diagnosis (hydrocephalus or "water on the brain" is essentially what I had as a result of my tumor resection, but it wasn’t of natural causes so it was sort of a by-product of the resection surgery), your brain is essentially responsible for maintaining it’s own intracranial pressure with the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). We all take it for granted because we aren’t conscious of all the things that our brains do for us without us having to worry about it. My understanding is that hhe brain is sensitive to outside pressure and the orientation of the head and will adjust the amount of CSF and direct its flow in order to maintain a healthy environment. The wrong amount of pressure can cause symptoms such as headaches, personality changes, light-sensitivity, among others.

The shunt that is now in my body, works by means of gravity and a little ball that closes a valve depending on whether my body is upright or laying down. This picture explains it much better (click on the thumbnail to enlarge):

The manufacturer’s website has much more technical information, but in response to Keri who posted a comment that shunts have become fancier these days, the answer is very much yes and this proves it!

You can also see where they needed to put the various pieces of the equipment in my body and why they needed to cut where they did. My head and my abdominal muscles aren’t too happy with it, but the lack of headaches will be a much better tradeoff in the end.

In other news, I’ve got my consultation appointment set for the beginning of my radiation treatments and although I don’t have many questions or answers yet, writing about the process on the blog will get me set in the right direction.

Lastly, posting a comment on here is not a requirement for friendship. Having said that, I’ve been overwhelmed with the ammount of support I’ve received from friend and family member alike. Despite all our technology and skill we’ve gained in the field of medicine that can help with the physical means of supporting the body when it isn’t working correctly, we still need spiritual support when times are tough, and I’ve been very blessed as of late. I’m very grateful for all the people who check in on me verbally and physically and I’m publicly apologizing if I can’t respond to your efforts in the way I really want. I intend to make up for it soon, so stay tuned

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 7:53 pm and is filed under General, Serious. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.