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Anyone's baby have a shunt?
Our son had a shunt put in at 2 weeks old, and he will be 4 weeks old on Monday. The surgery went great & his hydrocephalus is looking so much better, but now he HATES to lay on his right side or even turn his head to the right (the shunt is on the lower right side of the back of his head). We go see the physical therapist in a couple weeks & the neurosurgeon on Monday, but did anyone else whose baby had a shunt put in have this problem? His stitches are all healed up and it doesn't seem like he's sore anymore...I don't know. Any advice on how to help him get used to his right side?
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Re: Anyone's baby have a shunt?
That doesn't really sound typical to me. My DS1 three shunts, though they all run to the same drain on the right side of his head. My son never had a problem laying on that side. Do you think there could be anything else going on? Is he moving both his right arm and leg good? Is he fussy, sleeping a lot, or vomiting?
My son had one shunt placed and he seemed fine after that surgery, except for the fact that his other side was clogged up and they needed to go back in and do the other side too. It's really hard to say about the second shunt because it was placed at the same time he had an 8-hour tumor debulking surgery and they kept him sedated and on a ventilator for several days following that surgery. And for the third subdural shunt, seems like he was aggravated about laying down for maybe thee or four days, but then he was fine. I actually removed his staples myself from that surgery at about 10 days post-op and he was completely fine with my doing that. I'd be sure to tell your neurosurgeon at your appointment because I am pretty sure he should be all healed up from it at two weeks out.