Happy 40th, Cameron\!

So, some of you may have noticed I was gone this week.

My shunt, uh. kind of exploded. Well, part of it disintegrated and got infected.

Week before last, my shunt site got really swollen and red. I didn't think much of it because I didn't have any of the symptoms for a malfunction, which I had 20 years ago and it's a pain you don't forget. I didn't even have a fever! So, the following week I wake up with my pillow soaked and my head weeping pus and fluid. I had a CT Scan scheduled for that day. and as soon as they were done. I was told to go the ER where a neurosurgeon decided I needed to be admitted right away. His plan was to externalize the shunt through my chest, but there was no usable spinal fluid because the shunt was so old. So I went into surgery the next night to get it out of me so they could test if the spinal fluid was infected or if it the infection was still skin-level.  Oh, and since they couldn't externalize it through my chest? Pulled it out through my head, hence going under.

They tested it for three days and decided my fluid was healthy enough, so the next day (Monday) I get a whole new shunt back in, but for variety, on the other side of my head. I came home yesterday. I think I slept, maybe, 12 hours in the hospital. One time I was kept up because my nurse was elderly and couldn't figure out how to work the system for the blood pressure cuff. I got to hear about her adult sons in Hollyweird(Her words, not mine). At 2 A.M.

So, that was my week and the story of my 39th and 40th surgery. I would seriously advise against having two in one week.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Casey Moore 

Jesus brother. I noticed you had dropped off. Figured something was up, but not that. Get better man.

Worst part was the headaches, which I had for a week at the beginning of the month. Again, shunt migraines are very distinct and do not stop and  you have major light and sound sensitivity and and the headaches went away and my doctor thought it was just tension headaches. They went away shortly after I saw a chiropractor and he manipulated my neck and shoulders.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BorisTheCheese 

Feel better Cameron!  This place can't survive without our resident Don Winslow hook-up.  By the way, great piece of writing describing all that horrible stuff.  If you get sick of crime I suggest trying your hand at horror.

Fun fact: The site where they externalized the shunt is still an open wound. It's very small, but they want it to heal on its own. I've never actually experienced a wound staying open that I could feel!

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeI 

Don't pick at it!

 

I was coming in here to admonish you for wishing yourself a happy birthday. I felt immediate shame.

 

Get better, Cameron.

I'm only 28!

Honestly, it's not big or wide enough to stick things in.

And don't take this personally, but I hate being called Cam. My closest friends aren't even allowed to call me that. The fanfic in my head for Modern Family is Cameron seething inside whenever somebody calls him Cam, but is too polite to say anything.

Got my stitches and staples yanked out. I was surprised at how painless it was(Not my first time getting this stuff out, but I never had staples on my head). I've been feeling great since the surgery. Before the surgery, when I was having the symptoms for an infected shunt, I was lucky if I got 3 hours of sleep a night and then I'd have to sit up because lying down seemed to bring the headaches. This lasted 3 weeks. And then my body temperature started going nuts, but frustratingly, never a fever. (I was PRAYING for a fever, because that would have told me something).

No real recovery, just waiting for my hair to grow back where the incisions were made. The worst part after it was how stiff the left side of my neck was because of the tube part of the shunt on the side of my throat. That stiffness lasted a little over a week.

I guess I forgot to tell this story.

(This is darkly funny after my story is done)

At least my head didn't explode this time.

No, that would be far too nice. March got mean.

I lost my mind for a couple weeks.

It started on my birthday. I had a doctor's appointment that morning (later I would find out I kept asking my mother where my wallet was and even the doctor thought I was acting odd, but figured I was just worn out.) and afterwards I went to my favorite cafe. Everything was fine.

I don't remember a damn thing after I was picked up. Don't remember getting my cake or that I ate very little dinner that night and barely kept it down.

And for the next couple weeks...I didn't read.
 

I couldn't hold my eyes up on people and I kept repeating myself. It was like I had Alzheimer's. Friends would later report that I left them extremely odd texts and voice-mails.  Mostly on the same subject over again. Don Winslow told me I had called him 15 times in one night about a birthday lunch we had planned.

Finally it got so bad I was taken to the ER where I guess they diagnosed that a pressure sore got infected and that infection spread to my shunt, and the liquid that was stuck in my head explained my dementia.

I thought I was at camp. I had full on hallucinations about this. I thought I had gotten sick at camp and I was moved to a camp-owned hospital.

One night my wound vac was beeping and the nurses had trouble fixing it. I mumbled that they should call my dad because he was good at fixing the vac. They told me it was too far and late just for this.

I nodded knowingly and said "That's right. We're on a boat at sea."

That's right, I went from being at a camp, to a hospital, to a hospital on a boat.

I was in the hospital for a couple weeks because the neurosurgeon needed my spinal fluid healthy and so he had it draining for a couple weeks. Finally I had my surgery and I felt great afterwards, but I still had the infection, so I recovered for a couple weeks and then a doctor inserted a pick-line into my arm so I could get fluids through an IV at home. I only wore the IV for a week at home, but when they inserted it, I got an obscenely large amount of morphine and that made the procedure quite pleasant.

So I got home after a month in the hospital and I'm feeling quite fit now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Subotai 

God damn, Cameron.  Hang in there.  Don't forget how many people love you.

Believe me, that thought made me fight it as well as I could

Thanks for all the well wishes so far. It really was terrifying. I can handle just about anything physical, but losing my mind was something new and it could have been worse or even permanent.

Word of advice: When in pain in a hospital, the drug NORCO is your best friend.
 

Also, being high as a kite with access to Amazon is a BAD THING. I bought about a dozen Ed McBain books.

Out of all the ailments and surgeries and troubles over the years, the worst and most annoying is that my right shoulder has gotten worn out as I entered my early to mid-twenties. It's like I'm a veteran pitcher who finally wore his arm down too much, except it's from the constant motion of pushing my wheelchair. I'm nowhere addicted to it and am very careful, but vicodin has become my friend and every four months or so my doctor gives me a Cortisone shot. The first time it went out, I was doing over-head throws with a basketball with a personal trainer when I was around 22 and suddenly I was in a fetal position crying in pain. My left shoulder has been mostly okay because it's my stronger side.

What's scary is that almost a year later I clearly remember my extremely detailed camp hallucinations. They've replaced whatever really happened in my memory banks.

( I also posted to see if I could give anyone a heart attack when they saw I updated the thread. I love you all though!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by stelios 

No one ever accused you of not a little bit of an asshole. ;)

2013 isn't here yet. God might get really creative with me next year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim K 

You nearly did give me a heart attack.
By the way (since this thread seems to be as good as any to ask you a question). For some reason you're avatar, more than any other Chewer on these boards, has become indelibly linked to your name in my head. Whenever I see Donald Glover on TV, I don't think Donald Glover, I think Cameron Hughes.
The only other chewer that comes close to this is Art Decade's Roger Moore avatar, but since his avatar has most of the face hidden by a martini glass the thing that seems to stick for me there is that I always picture Art Decade as some guy wearing a white suit and black bow tie.
So while I was reading that year old post of yours I pictured Donal Glover going through what you described, and then had to second guess myself because I really have no idea what you look like.
So if you don't mind me asking a silly question. How far off is this strange image I have of you in my mind?

There's a picture of me in San Diego Noir. Rath once said I looked somewhat like Saracen on FNL.

2011 made my head burst open and leak spinal fluid.

2012 made me lose my fucking mind.

Tonight when 2013 hits, pray to whatever power you like, God, The Buddha, Allah, Zuul and the Stay-Puft Marshallow Man, that I'm not killed this year. I'd really like it if the worst thing that happens to me is that I turn 30 on March 1st and am officially old.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben Grimm 

 

Best of luck to you on a better year.

 

And the kit when you get when you're officially old is pretty cool. The Mentalist DVDs kind of suck, of course, but the high pants are really comfortable, and the hard candies are delicious.

I'm already in the wheelchair, can't wait for the adult diapers! It'll save me so much time!