Wanted to post an update, as an encouragement to anyone who will be doing their clipping soon. I am 3 days post-clipping of a larger-than-9mm incidentally found non-symptomatic aneurysm of the right internal caratid artery (little larger than they thought, but I won't learn how big til I see the dr next month). The takeaway I want you to know is ... I feel great!! Procedure took about 3 hours, including their time to prep me, and as the doctor said, was 'Textbook'. Plus they didn't need to put in a stint after all so i don't need to be on ongoing meds. I woke up feeling great as you could tell lby my priorities - asking for my hairbrush and makeup kit, then my cell phone, then wanting to update all my family and friends on Facebook. :) I love that for the doctors doing this procedure is so routine...they do it all the time, almost like re-setting broken arms! Their experience inspires a lot of confidence in me. And just 2 days later I was back to 100% normal! The only side effect was a few headaches in the hospital the night of the procedure and the next day, and a little soreness in my abdomen just above where the catheter went in, but nothing the pain meds couldn't handle. We filled the percoset pain med prescription on the way home from the hospital day after the procedure...and ended up just needing to take one (that first night home). Leaving you with this thought - While for many the anticipation of the surgery is so scary and filled with anxiety, it was nowhere near as bad as worry leads one to believe...and it sure feels great to be on the other side, knowing the aneurysm is fixed and has no chance of rupturing!
What a wonderful celebration! Glad you are feeling well and sharing the experience with everyone. Carol
WooHoo Thriceblessed! Good for you!
Glad all went, nice story. All the best. Mark
I’m very scared I have to getvine clipped in 2 days
hi Kaityln. It's normal to be scared. and yet it seems for most people the waiting and worrying about is the hardest part. Tell me more about what scares you?
I’m scared something is going to go wrong I have a 2 month old baby at home and I wanna be strong to take care of him he needs his mama they are clipping a 5mm by the ophaltmic artery I’m so freaked out I don’t wanna die
Wow - a 2 month old! Congratulations on your new baby! (and I remember how exhausting it is when you first have a new little one, especially those first couple of months! Hopefully he/she will be sleeping longer stretches at night soon!). I hear you about needing to be there for him/her!! My 3 kids are all grown, but I know the feeling from when they were younger. Yes, you DO need to stay around!! Thank goodness there is this procedure then!
What does your doctor tell you your risks of the surgery are? For me, the risks of having the surgery were far less than of not having the surgery, and were very small. It's different for different people though.
Like stroke um maybe it rupturing those are the main ones that freak me out but I keep telling myself they wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t gunna be benefical
Did you ask your doctor what the percent chances of the worst things happening are, in your case, if you have the procedure?
And the % chances of those same things if you don't get it fixed?
It helped me to get numbers on those.
Nearly always, we patients have an exaggerated amount of worry...we think the chances of something going really bad with surgery are much, much higher than what they really are.
Once I knew what those numbers were for me, it made my decision easier, and I wasn't nearly as scared going into it, since I was confident then that I had made the best decision.
ThriceBlessed said:
hi Kaityln. It's normal to be scared. and yet it seems for most people the waiting and worrying about is the hardest part. Tell me more about what scares you?
I agree! I had to have 3 stents put in after a nights stay in ICU I was discharged home and was able to return to work. I still have my headaches but nothing excedrine and my magnesium can't handle.
Surgery was a success!!!
Wonderful!!! Now you can get back to just being 'Mom' to your new baby...with no added worries about your health. Doing a happy dance here for you!
Thank you so much i m glad u just don’t know y I’m still scared
Why? After my surgery, my doctor told me that immediately I had zero risk of that aneurysm they just coiled rupturing again - it was totally fixed. And that my chance of developing another aneurysm was no more than the average person's ... and that they'd be monitoring me anyway doing a scan every year for the first 2 years, then every 5. Hearing all that, I am not scared even a tiny bit. Just feeling so blessed and thankful to God that they caught it...and fixed it.
That sounds like word for word what my doctor told me!