Large Scale Central

Our Devon Sinsley needs your prayers.

Devon,

I too am so glad your are doing well. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Devon Sinsley said:

Not fair unless they are pictures of your own head…

Mine would look an awful lot like a cracked pot.

Devon Sinsley said:

Lol I am not sure how much your kidding around or if you are serious. In case your serious the valve is under my scalp. the curly thing/s are the staples and are gone already. But if your kidding then let me tall you the curly thing was a down right bitch. I forgot the staples were there and would go to scratch my head and snag one. Ouch!!!. And when the valve was still tender I went to go get in the car and banged the valve on the door jam. I said a very bad string of words and almost laid in the parking lot in the fetal position and cried. Thankfully I was able to control myself until I got int the car and then let loos with the bad words.

Well, probably the usual mix – but I was pretty seriously studying your xrays, and totally misunderstood the first one!

Going counterclockwise, I get the “Shunt in brain.” Then it looks like it exist via a curly tube, goes to the valve. And for the life of me, the “tube heading to my abdomen” sure looked to me like it’s pointing to another spiral hose!

I was kinda cringing over that. Was thinking, when you’re older, you might be hearing something like “And whatever you do kids, do NOT yank on Grandpa Devon’s tube this year!!”

So anyway… how DOES that tube get to your abdomen? Internal routing, I hope?

Very glad you’re recovering well Dude!

Cliff

PS, is the valve plug-in power or battery?

Cliff Jennings said:

Devon Sinsley said:

Lol I am not sure how much your kidding around or if you are serious. In case your serious the valve is under my scalp. the curly thing/s are the staples and are gone already. But if your kidding then let me tall you the curly thing was a down right bitch. I forgot the staples were there and would go to scratch my head and snag one. Ouch!!!. And when the valve was still tender I went to go get in the car and banged the valve on the door jam. I said a very bad string of words and almost laid in the parking lot in the fetal position and cried. Thankfully I was able to control myself until I got int the car and then let loos with the bad words.

Well, probably the usual mix – but I was pretty seriously studying your xrays, and totally misunderstood the first one!

Going counterclockwise, I get the “Shunt in brain.” Then it looks like it exist via a curly tube, goes to the valve. And for the life of me, the “tube heading to my abdomen” sure looked to me like it’s pointing to another spiral hose!

I was kinda cringing over that. Was thinking, when you’re older, you might be hearing something like “And whatever you do kids, do NOT yank on Grandpa Devon’s tube this year!!”

So anyway… how DOES that tube get to your abdomen? Internal routing, I hope?

Very glad you’re recovering well Dude!

Cliff

PS, is the valve plug-in power or battery?

Cliff,

I believe the correct terminology to get everyone upset is “track” power or battery…If you do that, you can antagonize a lot more folks. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

Roger that Bruce, I was ramping the topic up gently…

(evil grin)

Cliff Jennings said:

So anyway… how DOES that tube get to your abdomen? Internal routing, I hope?

Very glad you’re recovering well Dude!

Cliff

PS, is the valve plug-in power or battery?

Ok Cliff,

All the curly things are staples. All gone. If you understand the shunt in the brain part it exits my skull where the “upper” curly thing is and then there is a faint tube heading down and to the left to where the valve is. This is also under my scalp. Then there is the valve which is made of silicone mostly so doesn’t show up well on the Xray. But you can see its outline and there is a white dot which I am assuming is the microchip. Then conitnuing to the left and down there is a very faint tube running by the “lower” curly thing and down my neck. This is all inside under my skin.

Just for the record there is nothing outside my body, everything is internal. So from the valve the line runs down the side of my neck from behind my ear and heads to my collarbone. It rides over the top of my collarbone and heads to the left side of my right nipple. It misses my nipple by about an inch. About where my peck ends and my beer gut begins is the first of four holes where the did the abdomen work. the tube stays right under my nipple and runs to a point inline with my belly button, then makes a u-turn (dont know why they did this) and then heads just under my rib cage to the right side of my body and ends somewhere in my gut. I can feel it all the way until under my nipple then they must have to dive in under my blubber layer to empty it in the abdomen. I hope this helps. You can see it pretty well with the naked eye on my neck and collarbone but more or less looks like a tendon or vein. Everywhere else its embedded deep enough as to not be seen.

As far as I know there is nothing actually electrical in my head that is “powered up”. Its all magnetic. The doc literally sticks a magnet beside my head and turns it to the right to raise the pressure and turns it to the left to reduce the pressure. On here computer screen it looks like a regular pressure gauge for the most part. It reads the actual pressure in my brain in centimeters of mercury. Normal people run around between .5 to 1.5 cm/Hg I was running about 2.5 cm/Hg. The valve is set to 1.5cm/Hg. Whats really weird is I can actually tell when it works. Like today I was starting to get a high pressure headache (yes you can tell what they are between high and low pressure) and then all of a sudden within maybe 5 minutes I was fine. Pretty amazing really. I am now part cyborg.

The cringe worthy part is the how the tube was run. So the method is called tunneling. But more or less if you know what directional drilling is thats a better analogy. They basically thread it in with a big needle. The just shove it down there. The only incisions I have are the curly things and four small holes in my belly about 1/4" long each. That creeps me out more than the brain work.

Wowsers Devon… thanks for explaining.

Magnet-op, huh. Amazing.

Probably should scratch this off your wish list then,

Magnetic Mask

Hey Devon,

I have been away a while and just now saw your exray of the shunt. Very similar to mine except for my titanium disk and your “epoxied” hole. This is a difference in technology over the past 6-7 years. I had three surgeons during my procedure…twwo neurosurgeons doing the brain and the vascular surgeon doing the tunneling of the tube for drainage. The valve and tubing is very easy to see and the depression in my skull where the hole and disk are located are easily seen and felt. I always get comment when I get my haircut. How often are they adjusting your valve now? I haven’t had mine readjusted since August of 2011 (about three or four months after my surgery. So far, so good.

Gary so far no need to adjust it yet. Went in for my two week post op and all was good. What little bit of pressure headaches i do get are mild and fo away fast. So we havent played with the settings yet. I don’t see her for a year unless I have issues.

You can for sure see my valve. It’s a pretty good lump. I also have a divot where they augered.

Now for the really really big news. I HATE 2017, yep sorry I said it.

So Monday I had a severe pain in my side. Just figured part of the constipation from the pain meds. This morning it was back and enough to put me down. Now I was sure it was not constipation. I went to ER. Thinking infection or something wrong with the shunt. It is right in the same area.

Kidney stone, yep that’s right I am passing s stone…

2017 sucks.

Suddenly my bruised foot from my Thankless day toe dislocation, doesn’t seem that bad(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif), um please take care and I’m praying for ya.

Just heard from the urologist nurse and the stone r is 6x5mm just at or larger than what they consider passable. I am waiting to hear from the doc. I am not in the best of moods right now

Oh noooo…

Haven’t been thru it, but from what I’ve heard, I think you might be glad you avoided passing it.

Devon my friend,

I grieve for ya buddy. You certainly are being tested this year.

Any blood in your urine? What are the docs going to do? (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cry.gif)

No blood that I know of but the damn thing is still way up by my kidney. And I am still waiting on the doc to see what he wants to do with it. Right now I am back in bed and back on pain meds.

Devon, who did you piss off? Man! What a bad year you are having. All in all I think I will just keep my own problems, thanks.

And yes, passing a kidney stone is supposed to be a quite painful experience. I am glad I haven’t had that joy…yet.

David,

Inam learning the hard way just how much I can take and still have a sense of humor.

Can they pulverize it, so you won’t pass such a big chunk?

I think you should blame all this on the doctors. I wish I had suggested this a long time ago, but you need to switch to a couple of real doctors:

Devon, I have had something like ten or eleven bouts of kidney stones over the years. However, I have never passed one; all of them had to be extracted, and i’ve had just about every type of extraction procedure known to medicine. Not a lot of fun but after what you’ve been through this year, I think you’ll do fine. You’re in my prayers and i’m happy to assist in any way I can. Hang in there. This, too, will pass …