Hi I’m new here.
In 2013 I had a brain bleed due to an AVM. I was diagnosed this week with a 2mm PICA aneurysm and a 1-2 mm aneurysm behind my right eye on the carotid artery. I can’t remember the name of that aneurysm. Anyway, my neurosurgeon said they are small and she’s just wanting to watch them. All she told me to do is keep my stress level down and exercise; however, I’m afraid of exercising. I went for a bike ride today and really couldn’t enjoy it because I kept looking at my heart rate. Straining is what caused my AVM to burst in 2013 and so I’m really hesitant. The PICA aneurysm concerns me the most because of the location. Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated.
Good Morning Tanya! Welcome and thanks for starting a new topic. @DickD also has experience with AVM’s. I hope you’ve joined the Ben’s Friends AVM group found here https://www.avmsurvivors.org/
I think your may mean the ophthalmic artery Ophthalmic artery: Anatomy, branches, supply | Kenhub. But I’m not sure…
For all of us, ruptured or not, we are told to keep our stress level down and exercise. Then many of us become stressed because we are told to avoid it, a viscous circle, ugh! When a doctor discusses stress, I think they mean our emotional stress, but you know I’ve never asked!
Exercise is probably one of the best ways to lower stress believe it or not as it helps keep our blood pressure down. When I was able to work my job was considered extremely high in the stress category, but I loved my work. One of the ways I dealt with it was weeding out my gardens.
Stress can be good or bad, depending on our reaction to something. You might want to join a Yoga or Tai Chi class to help. Meditation, Mindfulness, Relaxation breathing also called deep breathing or diaphragmatic breathing can all be helpful. Reach out to a therapist to talk about your concerns. Keep up with the current level of exercise you did prior to finding out you have two small aneurysms. Keep chaos and drama to a minimum. For me personally, besides gardening, reading, I practice relaxation breathing all the time, it’s the way I breathe naturally now. Walk abouts be it our yard, a park, the Walmart lol. Try really hard to ignore your heart rate when riding your bike, you might want to make a contract with yourself that you’ll only look at it once every 15 minutes then progressively longer, say every 30 then 45 then 60 minutes. I know my cardiologist wanted my heart rate to increase with exercise and then be able to come back done when I was done. The more I am able to exercise the better I am able to deal with any emotional trauma/chaos that comes my way now.
I know our members have some great ideas on how to manage anxiety and stress, I hope they respond.
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