My twin brother, Nick and I were born 10 weeks premature. At birth, I was diagnosed with a grade 3 brain bleed and Hydrocephalus and had a brain shunt placed at just a few days old. I lived 22 years with the shunt and had a handful of revisions throughout the years.

In 2019, I had gone in for a revision that resulted in a brain infection. This is always a risk with a revision, but this was my very first one. It was scary, and the symptoms I was having made me feel unbelievably sick.

I was admitted to the hospital for 10 days and over Christmas to recover and to treat the infection.

While in the hospital, my surgeon suggest we trial to see if I still need the shunt so he clamped the external drain that was placed to see the amount of fluid I was out putting. With this information, I ended up becoming a candidate for an ETV.

The day after Christmas I underwent this procedure and now 27 years old living shunt free!

I am thriving and haven’t stopped sharing my story with the world. There is so much more than what I am sharing so currently I am working on publishing my very first memoir about my battle, overcoming, and defying the odds called, Beyond The Shunt: A Brave Adventure with Hydrocephalus. It will be published later this summer.

Although I know overcoming a battle like this and living device free may not be the case for others, I hope that one day you can overcome your battle. I hope you stay positive and you never stop fighting.