My Wife has Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus.

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Which in average person terms is fluid on the brain. We received this news yesterday afternoon and I am still in shock. If anyone has had a family member who has had this same health issue, feedback would be appreciated. FYI, don't give any advice because they will lock this thread, Thanks.

[MichellesBFF]

1. Hugs for you and your wife

I have no personal experience with this, but I wanted to offer you my best wishes, and my hope that your wife gets better soon. And please remember to take care of yourself!:grouphug:

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6. Thanks and welcome to D/U.

[knitter4democracy]

2. It's not a totally uncommon condition.

There are way better ways to handle it these days, and a good neurosurgeon can help with putting in a shunt. Not that it's not scary, but it's better now than it was even ten years ago, from what I hear from Hubby. He's had a few patients with it who are now doing well.

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4. Thanks for the knowledge, she will like to read this thread.

[Warpy]

3. The good news is that a shunt will reverse it

and although the words "brain surgery" will scare the hell out of every normal person in the world, the actual surgery is not that drastic.

What they do is put a drainage tube into one of her ventricles in her brain and run it down under the skin in her neck and have the outflow into her abdominal cavity. That normalizes the pressure within her brain and spinal cord and completely cures her symptoms.

Recovery is typically very quick, although she will have bad hair days for several months until it grows back in.

Untreated NPH can resemble all sorts of illnesses, from Parkinson's to Huntington's through Alzheimer's. It's a horrible condition and can be cured completely.

Her physician will go over all the risks with her. In several years of neuro, I saw one blocked shunt that needed to be revised, and that was the worst complication I saw.

Good luck to you both. NPH can be a devastating illness if not treated. That there is a surgical treatment is good news. Kudos to the doctor who picked it up, it's too often dismissed as one of the more common diseases of aging.

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5. Thanks for the knowledge, she will like to read this thread

She does have a great Doctor and they have her visiting the Neurologist on the 14th so hopefully it can happen in another three to four weeks.