Anna

I was born in December of 1970. Depending on whose recollection you believe, I was either two months early (as I’ve been told most of my life) or, as my dad told the neurosurgeon in 1993, maybe only two weeks early. Either way, I was small enough to have a Tiny Tears doll pattern for a christening gown — which, sadly, was lost in Katrina. 

I’m not sure what triggered people to notice that something was “off”, but someone did, and I had an emergency christening, followed by the first of four brain surgeries within six months in January 1971. Two revisions later, I had my fourth brain surgery in May of 1971. Either the shunt itself (as we believed for years) or a stroke around that same time caused the left side of my body to stop working properly, leading to hemiparesis and serious strabismus in the left eye. Had it not been for that, I might have been left-handed, as I no longer favored my left hand. That shunt lasted what seemed forever. After 12 years without brain surgery, the doctor essentially told me I was “cured” and to call him if I developed any issues.  

I graduated from Tulane University in three years with a double bachelor’s degree in 1992, got married in August of 1993, and started graduate school at the University of Chicago in October 1993, with intentions of getting a master’s degree. But then I started having beastly headaches, and the day I began throwing up, Van dragged me to the student clinic.

They sent me straight to the neurosurgeon. Talking with the doctor, we realized my balance had been off long before I started experiencing headaches and vomiting. My third shunt replacement in 23 years happened just before Thanksgiving. As far as they could figure, my brain had compensated: my ventricles had expanded to a certain point, so the spinal fluid was able to absorb just enough, allowing me to have no issues for 22 years. Although I didn’t have any brain surgeries from 1971 to 1993, I did undergo the first of two strabismus surgeries on my left eye in 1973, with the second in 2023. Additionally, I had five ankle surgeries between 1977 and 1984 to correct my turned-in left foot, along with many physical therapy sessions through these years. 

In 1996, the doctors had to do another revision because the catheter in my brain had become clogged. In 1998, they determined I was a good candidate for an endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV), hoping that I wouldn’t need the shunt anymore.  Six weeks later, while sitting at the computer, I suddenly experienced a horrendous headache that travelled down my spine. My husband and I quickly headed back to the ER for evaluation. Needless to say, I ended up with another shunt. 

That shunt lasted 18 years, and might’ve lasted longer, but I fell down a flight of stairs at Slidell Little Theater, causing a hematoma and a concussion, among other injuries. My neurosurgeon drained the hematoma, and since I was still complaining about headaches, he performed an intracranial pressure (ICP) monitor procedure, which yielded inconclusive results. However, between 2014 and 2016, though, two other doctors discovered that the proximal catheter was not in the ventricle, but in brain matter. 

The summer of 2016 was horrible. The procedure to move the catheter resulted in a pseudomonas infection, which led to three weeks in the ICU. Afterward, a course of home antibiotics caused pulmonary embolisms, putting me out of work for nearly a year. That shunt, despite being on the FDA recall list, lasted until the summer of 2022, when I had not one, not two, but three more brain surgeries to try different shunts. In 2024, my Codman Certas valve stopped functioning properly, requiring another revision.

In the spring of 2019, I had a procedure to fuse the C4-C6 vertebrae. Then, in the summer of 2021, I underwent a lumbar spinal fusion—fusing L4-L6, inserting the spacer between L4 & L5, and de-tethering my spinal cord. For those who’ve lost count, that’s 18 brain surgeries —31 surgeries total, counting a distal shunt revision, deviated septum repair, and the wisdom tooth removal. 

Throughout all of this, I’ve managed to hold down full-time employment, get my master’s degree, direct four plays, and act as treasurer (now president) for the board of one of our community theaters. 

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