On Friday 22nd of March I started to get a headache yet again. The same type of headache I had previously. It was very sore but we didn’t want to jump to conclusions so I just rested. On the Sunday of that weekend my family and I all went out for my Granda’s birthday. I still had the headache and it had become worse. I didn’t enjoy that night nearly as much as I wanted to.

On Monday my mum called the hospital, ward 7A and they told her to bring me in to get it checked. When we arrived at the hospital we met a consultant called Mark who was going to tap my shunt to check if it was working properly. The results came back and showed that my shunt was infected which meant I was going to need yet another operation. If you have a shunt, it may become infected. If you have an infection in the cerebrospinal fluid, the infection can travel into the shunt. The bacteria can then stick to the shunt and grow. If your shunt becomes infected. If so you will need an operation to take out the infected shunt, antibiotics to clear the infection from the CSF and then a second operation to put in a new shunt once the infection is clear

The doctors told Mum and I that they would need to completely remove the shunt and put me on a course of antibiotics a week and then after that they would need to carry out another operation to fit a new shunt into my head and body so this hospital visit was going to be a long haul.

After I woke up from the surgery I was very sore. I also had a temporary external drain in so that my ventricles wouldn’t swell up with the shunt not being in. After a few days of rest I managed to walk about a little bit even with the drain.

The Sunday of that week was Easter. I woke up that morning to find a big chocolate egg lying on the chair beside me that the Easter bunny must have left for me. Later on that day the hospital got a very special from the Easter bunny and his biker friends. They came to deliver Easter eggs to all the children in the hospital. That day I managed to get up and go to a window to see them all lined up outside. It was amazing how many people had shown up. All of my family came in to see me that day and I got lots of chocolate eggs.

After 2 week I went back into the operating theatre to get an operation to take the temporary drain out and get a new shunt fitted.

A few days later I felt better and I was more than ready to go home. Getting out of the hospital is the best feeling in the world. Good bye hospital see you next time…