I have NEVER been told to pump my own shunt. I have been told not to as it could reset my shunt. They told me to only let my NS do it. You can do more harm than good pumping your own shunt.
I'm too always sick; always have a headache - at since March 22, 2000 at 8:34 in the morning(I was rear ended - hard). I've had umpteen million revisions since then(mostly emergency) and I will always have pain. Dr M says the anti-syphen devise will not make it perfect, but should help.
They tried putting me back to the standard shunt from the programmable, but it did not work. They tried switching from the Codman to the Menos, but that was a night mare and the NS had to put the Codman back in when the Menos fell apart in the doctors hands.