Hydrocephalus and Travel

I got in a car accident last Thanksgiving.  In the Emergency room they were not only concerned about a concussion or a possible brain bleed, but also that the shunt I have in my brain to treat hydrocephalus may have come dislodged.  Luckily it hadn't.  They sent me home with only a dull headache that lasted until December 18.  Then the headache went away for a few days.  However, as soon as I got off the plane for our Christmas trip to Seattle the headache came back for a couple of days again.

The same thing happened after the plane ride home.  The headache came back for a couple of days.

I hope the headache doesn't come back when we go to Brussels in March, or then just as I recover from that headache (or maybe before that one's even gone), we get on another plane to Oslo a few days later.

Nothing seems to help this headache, in fact everything I've taken thus far seems to make it worse.

There lies the "beauty"in shunts used to treat hydrocephalus.  They don't always work perfectly, especially when they've been knocked around a bit.

For those of you out there who don't suffer from hydrocephalus, or don't have a child who does, consider yourself lucky.  It's a life of headaches, migraines, brain surgeries, disabilities (both visible and invisible,) and always waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Even if you haven't had anything but doctor's visits for years, sooner or later that other shoe will always, always drop.  It's just a matter of time.  Another brain surgery or other difficulty is always around the corner.

The transition from  a child with hydrocephalus to an adult with hydrocephalus is daunting. You need to know the signs for yourself that your shunt is blocked, infected, or otherwise failing.  You also need to be mindful, unlike me, that if your head gets hit hard (like in a car accident) your shunt could come dislodged.

I've been dealing with this for 44 years,   Compared to others I've met, I've had very few brain surgeries, my husband and I just experienced our first one together, and this year we celebrate our tenth anniversary.

If all of today living with hydrocephalus had  been born a few decades earlier before shunts were invented, I wouldn't be here at all.  However, because I consider myself to have come through relatively unscathed,  I suppose I'm one One of the Lucky Ones.