Hey Jennifer,
I actually giggled at the not breathing part of your description about your angiogram!! Over 18+ years I’ve had 20+ angiograms!! The not breathing when the picture is taken has been newer for me.
The fireworks you saw was the contrast being “shot” behind/near the artey of your eye/s.
This helps guide the Dr. doing the angio. Mine usually warns me before he does it. Except the couple times he’s hit the “trigger” by mistake.
The pulling you feel was probably your Dr. moving the table to position you and the hovering Xray machines so he/she could take a pictures and your sterile blankets/draping got moved and pulled. That happens to me every time!!
I am pretty coherent while all this is going on and I’ve know my interventional radiologist since the beginning of my 1st aneurysm and bleed in 2001. Had my 2nd one clipped in 2017. Hence so many angiograms.
I was one of the ones who had to lay flat for 4-6 hours after!! Not now…UNC-CH uses the MINX as well and I love it!! No fuss no muss!!
I hope any other angios you may have to have are uneventful!! Take care-Mary
Oh I hope my next angiogram they use the MINX closure…I despise laying still on my back for four to six hours and stare at the clock the whole time roflol
I hope so too!! I hated that part the most. Back in the early 2000’s they also started you on IV liquids as soon as you showed up…and kept them going until you left. I think now they use much less contrast and don’t have to “flush” you out like back then. And I do feel your pain!! I went cross-eyed staring at the clock!!
And with the MINX they don’t, at least with me, have to stand on top of your groin and put pressure on it for 20 minutes or whatever it was. Just 1 min. I think and that’s it!!
You do have to be compatible with the MINX to have it. I’m not sure what the criteria is…but they put it in during the beginning of the angio if you are able to have it.
I just learned in April, I don’t have to have another angio until 2021!! There is a point, in my case, where the worry about radiation becomes valid. I’ve had so many and will have to be followed with them for, well ???
You’ve been around this and know a lot…have you ever heard of a surgeon packing an area with a spun material. Not spun cotton…maybe nylon? My surgeon, after clipping this last one, took part of my eye socket out, at my eyebrow, and went in that way to “pack” the area. If another aneurysm forms it might help contain it and if one forms and bleeds, it hopefully will help contain the the bleed.
I hope your surgeon brings the MINX to your clinic/hospital and I really hope you’ll be compatible!! I haven’t had a problem and I’ve had 6-8 of them now.
Take care and keep giving out your solid advice…it’s a big comfort, to me anyway!!
Mary
Thanks Mary! It means a lot to me. Your knowledge and willingness to share is equally inspiring, please keep it up!
I too have concerns with the radiation due to the numerous CT scans and the angiograms. So many that I now tease I hope to get dementia before the brain cancer. I also argue with my PCP about mammograms. She believes I need them, so I asked her my magic question, “ Just how much radiation can I have before it starts forming cancer? She has no answer, unfortunately.
I still have to be flushed out as I’m allergic to the contrast, so that won’t change. Although the last angiogram she was able to do it without contrast. It’s one of my questions for the next time I see her…does the body not get rid of the gadolinium?
I know it sounds odd, but I hope she is doing the minx closure by the time I have to have my next one. I had lower back surgery the year before I ruptured and it is painful to lay so still, or at least that’s what my aggravation believes lol
And I’ve never heard about the spun method until you asked about it. It’s amazing what the doctors can do!
Just quickly…I joke that my head is going to become our night light!!
I really do worry about the radiation. I had a swollen lacrimal gland in 2010. My eye Dr. sent me to a specialist because she didn’t want to order a CT scan, unnecessarily. The specialist ordered a CT scan. She did a biopsy after the scan and I was diagnosed with Sarcoidosis. Yeehaa!!
I also enjoy your sense of humor. Luckily, both me and my spouse have good ones. We do make jokes about things like…I need that like I need a whole in my head…oooppps! I have aphasia and my spouse told me about an Aphasia support group she read about near where we live. At the time, I couldn’t remember what aphasia was. And so I asked her what it was. It took her 5 minutes to quit laughing in order to tell me…then we laughed more!! She also finishes most of my sentences for me…or we’d never get anything done!!
Got to go water the garden a little…while it’s still cool. (Just the tomato plants)
Thanks again for your support to all of us!!
Mary
One day we are going to have to meet up…y’all are about an hour or so away.
I thought that earlier and didn’t know if it was OK to mention.
That would be great!