As I contemplated titles to appropriately name this piece, my original thought was "111 Reasons Why I Used to Hate My Life, Paired with the 111 Silver Linings that Made Me Reevaluate". Needless to say, this would no doubt have been a mouthful guaranteed to scare away potential readers. Therefore, I shortened the title to the present and simply sweet, "111 Silver Linings". ​

This year has marked many new things and happy beginnings for me, but this is for those of you who are curious about life as of late.

Some of you already know that this past month has brought both light and anxiety to our lives. For while our twenty-year search for a helpful diagnosis has finally come to an end, we also now know just what we are in for and it's a bit scary!

Turns out that "practicing medicine" is just about as real as a phrase can get! Do doctors ever really provide a black and white answer or is just a lot of grey guesses that lead us into the next chapter of our rather confusing existence?

Choosing to insert a shunt of any kind can be a big decision for hydrocephalus sufferers. As with anything, there are both pros and cons to living with a foreign object inside your head; read more to see what I have experienced with my first VP shunt.

I was blessed to find a great neurosurgery team, and I cannot say enough how utterly important it is to find a care team that matches your needs. Meet my neurosurgery heroes from Houston Methodist!

When I signed up for brain surgery #2, I don't think I understood exactly what I was getting myself into. After all, the strong pain meds administered during my first operation seemed to wipe most of those unfavorable memories from my mind. So, it was a bit of a surprise when I had my first shunt placed a few months ago.* 

*This post includes graphic images which my be considered disturbing to some readers. Please continue reading at your own discretion.