---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:39:22 -0600
>From: "Kendall D. Corbett" <[log in to unmask]>  
>Subject: Reply to Heidi  
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>This didn't make it to the list yesterday, and I referened it in a
>later email that probably left people scratching their heads, so here
>it is.
>Heidi,
>
>I was just born when my hydro was first suspected - as a matter of
>fact, my dad is a (now retired) general surgeon, so was one of the few
>fathers to be in the delivery room back in 1960, when I was born.  He
>was a little over halfway through his fellowship in vascular and
>thoracic surgery then practiced GS, because there wasn't anyplace in
>Wyoming, where he wanted to live, that was developing a
>thoracic/vascular department)  so the N/S rotation was still fresh in
>his mind.  He suspected hydrocephalus right away, and got in touch
>with a friend who was a neurosurgeon and asked him to come have a
>look.  Dr. G. came over within a day or two, said he also suspected
>hydrocephalus, and said to watch for motor issues.  At that time, my
>head was at the 95th %ile, so they decided to watch it for a while, as
>Dad's side of the fgamily has large heads to begin with.  By 2.5
>months my head was at the 110th percentile, or thereabouts, but I
>wasn't showing profound symptoms of the hydro.  By 3.5 months, it was
>at the 125th, so they decided to do a pneumoencephalogram - remember
>this was well before CT and MRI, and ultrasound back then was "iffy"
>at best.  The pneumo showed the hydro, so I was shunted at 4 months.
>CP was officially diagnosed when I was about two, and wasn't walking,
>or even cruising well yet.  I eventually walked at around 3 and a
>half.  I talked right on schedule or early, and learned to tell people
>when I needed to go potty, so I was potty trained before I could walk.
>
>The hydro was caused by a cerebello-pontine angle (CPA) cyst that
>obstructed the Aqueduct of Sylvius.  I had an intra-operative stroke
>(middle cerebral artery) during a shunt revision when I was 16, and
>ended up with left hemiplegia on top of my spastic diplegic CP.  The
>silver lining in this was that I got sent to the University of
>Cinncinatti Children's Hospital after the stroke and a subsequent
>shunt infection, and during the workup for the CPA cyst, the head of
>Peds neurosurgery said "I think we can fenestrate this, and you can be
>shunt-free."  I haven't had a shunt since Friday, January 13th, 1978.
>So I look at Friday the 13th as my Lucky Day!  (Wonder what'll happen
>tommorrow?)
>;-{)}
>
>Self diagnosis is a significant risk for those of us who were brought
>up in the medical profession, or work(ed) in it, so I applaud your
>caution, but I will mention a hyperactive gag reflex as being one of
>the signs that I was in shunt failure before my cyst was fenestrated,
>as it produced a psuedo Arnold-Chiari malformation.
>
> I also subscribe to a listserve for people with hydrocephalus, so
>forgive the "gory details," people.  It's populated by a bunch of
>people who approach the condition (necessarily) from much more of a
>medical model.
>-- 
>Kendall
>
>An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's redundant!)
>
>The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
>persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all
>progress depends on the unreasonable man.
>
>-George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950
>
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