Hydrocephalus

I was fifteen when I was first diagnosed with hydrocephalus. I had had headaches my entire life but was not diagnosed until I almost died. My mom said when I was born they should have known then, I was constantly throwing up, and screaming, but they thought that was normal; the doctors told them it was the formula that I was on. They just changed it around until I adjusted.
Back to when I was fifteen. My initial CAT scan was done to rule out tumors,  or confirm tumors, one way or the other, they knew I had a significant problem. I was taken to one emergency room to another by ambulance, I have no recollection of this, people tell me I told the driver that he smelled really good. How embarrassing. The doctors at Scripps hospital in San Diego immediately called a neurosurgeon who put in a temporary shunt right there in the ER, and I guess I had been unconscious for a couple of days, but within an hour I woke up, my favorite uncle was there it was 11:00 p.m. in intensive care, the nurse with me, her name was Jane, I've always associated a song by Starship with her, it was very popular at the time. All I know is that when I woke up, all I thought is I knew I wasn't faking!! And I had to go to the bathroom, and they wouldn't let me, I had to use the bedpan, but being 15 years old, I really didn't want to. Stupidity. I didn't know my kidneys had shut down either, that's why I couldn't go. I was in really bad shape. CAT scans weren't as advanced then as they are today, because it didn't show a whole lot, except that there was no tumor, and that my brain was really swollen. They put in my 2nd shunt on October 31st 1980.  Halloween has never been the same to me since. That shunt lasted until April of the next year, then I had that one revised. Then that one lasted two weeks, that one lasted two hours, followed by another that lasted one day. This went on for awhile, I then had to have my appendix removed due to the shunt becoming infected on the bottom end, and then I had to have it revised again; it lasted a year this time. Fortuntately the next time I had it revised this shunt last twelve years, twelve glorius years!! I read some of the people's profiles and when they say they have had only one shunt their entire lives I am in awe!! Shock and AWE!!! Total amazement!!! I turned 28 and started having the headaches again, I used to drink a bit back then so I was writing it off to hangovers, then I stopped drinking but the headaches got worse. Not a good sign, so it hit me, this is the shunt. Oh shit!!! here we go again! The rollercoaster ride of life or death, time to call my buddy the neurosurgeon. I wonder if he's still in practice? I've had the same dr. since I was 15. He is, thank GOD!!  But he's on vacation. I think that's ok, I can wait. So I thought. About three says later, I was rushed to the ER with a shunt malfunction and his associate opperated on me, but put in a normal pressure shunt instead of a low pressure shunt, and I couldn't see when I woke up. My dr returned from vacation a couple weeks later and they had to make sure I was up to surgery?  They replaced/revised my shunt but I still couldn't see for almost six weeks