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20861490 tn?1547468200

Is excessive sleep normal with a VP shunt that is over-draining?

Hello. I was diagnosed with hydrocephalus in 2008 at age 50 and have had a programmable ventriculoperitoneal shunt since that year, with one revision, a replacement after shunt failure in 2016.
Over the course of the last decade, my neurosurgeon has allowed my cerebrospinal fluid pressure to vary widely, particularly by over-draining to the point of slit ventricles. My wife can detect when this is happening because I begin to sleep inordinate and abnormal (for me) periods, ranging from 16 to over 30 hours at a time. We've had over-drainage occur three times now, and each time she's called the over-drainage first. The symptoms are different when my CSF pressure is too high (under-drainage) - I'm not able to walk or even to sit up or get up from a lying/sitting position, I suffer from otherwise inexplicable nausea/vomiting, etc.
My neurosurgeon tells me that fatigue, somnolence and sleeping ARE NOT and CANNOT BE symptoms of low CSF pressure, yet it occurs despite other variables (meds, diet) being the same.
My question is: if it can't be due to CSF over-drainage, why do I consistently have these specific symptoms - fatigue and long periods of sleep - when my shunt is draining too much?
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