Hello everyone! My name is Paula. I am 40 years old and am going in to get an unruptured 3mm anterior communicating artery aneurysm clipped on June 21st at the National Brain Aneurysm Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. I am very anxious but also very ready to get this taken care of. If anyone can give me advice or answer some nagging questions I have on this experience I would love to hear from you! My primary care doctor found my aneurysm after I had an serious migrane last year in May. I had gotten it one night after I had a tremendous arguement with my boyfriend and my blood pressure went through the roof! She did an MRI on me the following week and found it. She told me it was very small and very young. Can you even tell if an aneurysm is young or not? I am very interested in hearing individual stories from members on their personal experiences with aneurysms.
Welcome to BAF. I’m sorry that you are faced with such a difficult decision but many of us have walked the same road.
Are you still having migraines or other symptoms? Is your blood pressure now under control?
Please go to Ben Munoz’s page on this site and scroll down to the video on the Mayo Vlinic Study of Brain Aneurysms. It may answer some of your questions.
I have never heard of a " young ’ one. To me they are all the same. No one knows for sure when they form mine was 16mm. Who knows how old or young it was. They all need attention and monitoring whether they are small if large.
Hi Paula - I am writing this from my hospital bed one day post surgery of an aneurysm clipping. I too decided to fix this thing before a rupture and it has been a tough few months but the relief I feel now is wonderful. Mine was thought to be 3-4 mm but ended up being bigger than they thought and the surgeon said there were a few other things he observed that probably made the risk of rupture higher than originally thought.
I just wanted to let you know I would be more than willing to answer any questions you have. I know everyone’s experience is different and I am only a couple days in but so far things have been better than I had imagined in my mind.
My primary care physician referred me to a neurosurgeon that was in my insurance network at Mercy hosptial in Springfield, Missouri. His name is Dr. Coger. When he did my angio in June of last year, he told me he had only done 3 of these types of surgeries and that mine was too small for him to get ahold of so he put me on a yearly schedule to be rechecked.
I wanted a second opinion so I got on the internet and found Dr. Nussbaum with the National Brain Aneurysm Center. My primary doctor got me in with a referral to him and he did my second angio in February of this year and told me he thought it may be a bit larger..3.5 or 4.. so I decided to go ahead and make plans then to have it done in June. This neurosurgeon has done over 1200 aneurysm surgeries and has an extremely low morbidity rate- 1% - so I am feeling very confident that he has the skill to clip this baby and get me home as soon as possible!
I rarely have ANY type of headache so that`s why the initial one that prompted me to go get checked out was so alarming to me. Normally I have no head pains at all. My blood pressure is now consistently 60 over 100...kinda low but better than the other way! A year ago I was smoking and drinking a ton of caffiene...I am very high strung and that was just making it all worse. I am sure that is how I got this aneurysm in the first place was not taking care of myself properly.
I do have some idea of when this one formed in my head because I have also been diagnosed with M.S. in 1999 and have had several MRI`s to keep a watch on that condition. The aneurysm was not in those MRI`s so it gives me a good idea of when it actually started to form so maybe it is "young". However old it is I am not going to let it live much longer! :)
Please fell free to tell me your story..I am interested in hearing from others about their experiences.
You are ONE day POST surgery and you are already on your computer?! That`s awesome! YOU`RE awesome! You are already my inspiration! Please tell me about your experience and yes, I will more than likely be asking you a TON of questions! I am so glad you messaged me!
I will be praying for you a quick recovery and a short hospital stay!
That`s my 5 year old daughter`s name! How are you? I would love to ask you a few questions about your aneurysm and how you found it and also more about post surgery. Were you depressed because of what the surgery left you feeling like or looking like or was it something else depressing you?
