Elementary School P.E/Adaptive P.E rewrite

I scrapped two posts a while ago when I was getting rid of posts that were really inaccurate. With two of them I turned them into drafts because of inaccurations and putting someone into a good light that hated me (a teacher). They were a lot more in depth than this post will be. I'm going to read into those posts later, and possibly make another post about this subject. I was talking to a few people on Facebook when I was in high school. But someone found me several years later in hydrocephalus groups on Facebook that started to send others my way right away. I found out through some of these people, and in the hydrocephalus groups about people who had to sit out completly because of their shunts. From what I remember most of these people were/are older than me by a decade. If you're just recently looking into my blog current shunt technology really started to improve in 1962 with a shunt that Roald Dahl helped invent to help his Son who has hydrocephalus. Before his shunt the technology exisisted but it was far more dangerous, which says a lot considering how bad things can still get now. So the survival rate really started to improve at this point. Which is why I've never really met anyone with congenital hydrocephalus (either online or in person) that is currently much older than 60. There was rules regarding football and contact sports that had to be taken seriously in my case, and they were. My 5th grade teacher noticed how bad I was doing athletically. I ended up in Adaptive P.E for 2 years which was either 1 on 1, or 1 on 2. It helped a lot, although I've made no attempt at sports since High School. I had at least 2 adults in my life that was making a huge attempt at making me feel like that I was mentally retarded. The adaptive P.E instead went out of the way to do the opposite. There was other stuff going on at the that made me black out things that the 2 other adults were doing to make me feel the wrong way about myself. But even though it was the same period, I either never forgot the words that the instructer used to make me feel better, or it was far easier for me to remember how he thought of me. Look through my labels at the end of the web version of this post for my post about Roald Dahl. I'll be working on a more indepth post about him soon. I haven't been able to work on more indepth posts for a while for multiple reasons. Thanks for reading!

Link dump for upcoming posts.

 https://www.hydroassoc.org/complications-of-shunt-systems/?fbclid=IwAR1DlnyI04d0Mgd8tgH6L1w36QZ0eRz6sXQmXxeGkNiwpoveyjvQ0TuPaKY (Shunts)

 

 https://www.hydroassoc.org/hydrocephalus-day-to-day/?fbclid=IwAR3LiG6oRkiJKDvDMcIsPO-NYtXPkB7enF13LVDERsiNCnUR2813wupyem0 (Headaches and barometric pressure)

 

 https://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/an-adultand-a-recovering-spder.html?fbclid=IwAR3gcZazREgzP1EiOISFTFBS0v5a_WC_SJdj2JOKoMajVXrynTcgH-YNPSo (Sensory)

 

 https://shuntwhisperer.com/2017/10/16/me-and-the-barometer-2-0/?fbclid=IwAR3GSCM4shZj0xT9siGJAeuZEDjVNUh0SLCan9zxpN0fSeH-LUW9D3AtfGk (Barometric)

 

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4553745/?fbclid=IwAR2VwFEg9gPCWi16e36jcS78jiSej0KekK4mLH0jaS5ghPBSgvvJzVWsh-w (Calcification)

 

 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/12/roald-dahl-medical-pioneer-stroke-hydrocephalus-measles-vaccination?fbclid=IwAR1nTgtVyiT5dFgX2W_49J3_QKm1KK5f3rxy30kVI7FgTahSMzQ7pwX50rA (Roald Dahl)

 

 https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/248590-blanc (Looney Tunes)

 

 http://protomag.com/articles/roald-dahl-and-the-curious-shunt?fbclid=IwAR2rl-rVOqmFF0I8WLln8GTw4oWnUV45FTwv1CSU0JZohgg_ugy2lWiwvIs (Roald Dahl)

 

 https://dollecommunicationsblog.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/weather-app-helps-manage-barometric-pressure-related-migraine-headache/?fbclid=IwAR2TD5sQTT7JS7-_174EbqsAhKBYINXCsV7ehFC0gOMoR-Px271Np72QZyo (Barometric)

 

 

Media views on Hydrocephalus: Roald and Theo Dahl

This is my third "media views on Hydrocephalus" post. It fits well into the original subject that I had chosen for my blog, and my previous posts on the subject are the ones that are most often searched for on Google, according to my blog stats. I have a number of people I've been planning on writing about, and someone had searched for something similar and ended up reading at least one of my posts this week. So if it's searched again, I want this post to be seen. Hopefully it's exactly what someone is looking for.

Roald Dahl was an author more commonly known as a Children's author, but he also wrote adult fiction and non-fiction, screenplays, short stories and also wrote for television. Some of his children's books included James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Matilda. Some of the screenplays he wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Some television shows he worked on includes Way Out, which was similar to Twilight Zone and several Alfred Hitchcock movies.

Dahl was married to Patricia Neal, he had five children. In December 1960, his middle child and only son Theo's son's baby carriage was struck by a taxi. This resulted in him developing Hydrocephalus. At the time there were shunts available for treatment, but it was a very new technology. At the time the shunts had a much higher failure rate than it does today (and currently half of all shunts fail during the first two years).It also had a higher chance of resulting brain damage if they not replaced right away.

In Theo's case his shunt had blocked six times in nine months. Each time he would go temporally blind and they were never sure that his vision would come back after each revision, or how much brain damage had been done. 

This inspired Dahl to develop a new shunt other than the Holter shunt that had been used for a few years at the time, and was the first successful shunt. During the next couple years with the help of Toy Creator, Stanley Wade he would succeed in the development of a new shunt. The main differences between his and the previous shunt was that the shunt wouldn't touch the brain during the placement reducing the risk of cerebral debris getting in and steel discs, which gave the shunt a wider area to drain the fluid.

By the time the shunt was Developed Theo no longer needed a shunt, but for the next couple years after (1962-1964) Dahl's shunt was used in two to three thousand children worldwide. This was Dahl's first major influence in medicine, but not his last. After his daughter died from measles encephalitis, he became an advocate for immunization. Then after Patricia Neal had a series of strokes, he created his own rehab treatment to help her recover.

I've been looking forward to writing about Dahl and his son more than authors, because of my childhood interest in him that in a way continues on into today. My third grade teacher had us read many of his books, At least six of his them that I can remember. We watched at least a few of the movies that was based on his books as well, and then I saw another in the theaters when it came out the year after I was in his class (James and the Giant Peach). I knew very little about Dahl himself at the time, but it's interesting to me now that the author that wrote all those books helped developed a medical device that has kept me alive the whole time. Thanks for reading; I plan on writing more "media views on Hydrocephalus" posts in the near future. But I'll be including some others and more guest blogs from my friend Keyt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/biographyandmemoirreviews/7930233/Roald-Dahls-darkest-hour.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3029661/

history of hydrocephalus treatment and a hope for the future

I've tried to make it a point to write at least once a week,so I apologize for not writing in during the last couple weeks.

Although there really hasn't been much improvement in treatment in the last sixty years for hydrocephalus there has been some.Other than in the eighties there has been some development in shunts since when they first came out with them.The main reason that it took until then is because they couldn't determine what was causing it exactly because they didn't have the technology  to find out.Then they didn't have the technology to find out someone has hydrocephalus before they were born until decades later.The first treatment they tried for hydrocephalus was ventricular punctures,and it didn't work because he thought that it had to do with the outside of the brain rather than inside it.In ancient greece they attempted to treat hydrocephalus by wrapping bark around the person's head and in trephined holes.Several other treatments were tried to during the last couple centuries before shunt technology.Many were not successful due to lack of knowledge on what hydrocephalus,but some were close to knowing what the cause and wasn't successful for other reasons.One interesting treatment had to do with leeches,because a 19th century doctor thought that hydrocephalus was a inflammatory disease/condition.


The main two people who invented the first and still current shunt valve were actually not doctors.One was a toolmaker and the other is a famous children's author.They both were fathers of a son who developed hydrocephalus in childhood,and they both had the determination and the knowledge to make something that would not only save their sons lives.The inventor of the shunt valve is John Holter.His son Charles was born with severe spina bifida and after meningitis he developed hydrocephalus.This was 1950 and at the time the hospital they went to had developed a shunt but they didn't have a valve for it.After a failed attempt which resulted in the death of a young boy,he made the first shunt.Although it didn't save his son the shunt is still in use today.His model is the "Spitz-Holter" shunt.

With the first development in shunt technology was partially made by a engineer and a neurosurgeon the person who decided to make it and also had a huge part in developing the shunt itself was Roald Dahl.If you don't know who he is,he's a children author who wrote books who would later be turned into popular movies like Charlie and the chocolate factory.Although shunt problems are common and the need for revisions is far more likely than they should be,it use to be alot worse.After Dahl's son's carriage was hit by a taxi he developed hydrocephalus.Back before he created his valve shunts would jam more often and be more likely to cause brain damage and blindness than it does now.He ended up inventing the valve system that's still in use and at least at the time metal discs were invloved.His valve is no longer in use and his son didn't need a shunt anymore by the time he finished it,but it did save or at least made life easier for several thousand children.Kind of off subject but Roal Dahl was one of my favorite authors as a kid,and still is.I think it's pretty cool that he has a part in why I was alive and well at that point in the first place.

There was developments for shunt technology in the decades to follow nothing really worth mentioning.In 1997/1998 the programmable shunt was developed and released.The purpose of it is so that not every problem doesn't have to involve surgery and a new shunt.Instead the person's neurosurgeon can change the setting.The prolem is that even though that it makes that part of a person's life the programmable is likely to cause other problems,and just isn't worth it.Personally because of not having any revisions yet and having a shunt about about a decade older than the first programmables I can't talk about it from personal experience.

The newest known developed is endoscopic third ventriculostomy.It involves making a small hole in the third ventricle of the brain so having a shunt isn't needed.Although it was used pre-shunt for several decades and it was successful and replaced by shunts.It's more effective now but it still fails,and only a small amount of people are able to have it done.I already know without needing to ask a neurosurgeon that I'm not one of them.

There has been small improvements in recent years but nothing that's really well known or at least known to be effective.There is hope though,before 30 years there was no foundations for hydrocephalus so other than what was funded by the government which has never been much.Now more than ever with foundations,and social media with have more of a chance to raise money or just awareness.There working on new developments rather or not we hear about it alot.The way we're going there's hope for a cure,thanks for reading :)

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/405733

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Holter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade-Dahl-Till_valve

http://www.hydroassoc.org/docs/FactSheet_Third_Ventricular_Endoscopy.pdf