I live in Greece, my name is George & i am new to this site. My beloved wife 44 years old incidentally discover last month a 4.5mm aneurysm in Acom after headaches and MRI. Now we have Clipping surgery in three days!
We both cant be more petrified & scared! We tried to have stent assisted coilling two weeks ago, but it was cancelled after the dsa even if it was programmed right after the dsa. The doctor said that finally the Acom was bigger in diameter than initially showed in Mri & Cta & eventually we should do clipping because stent would finally be a problem in this place. Imagine the frustration when my wife wake up from the anesthesia and they announced her that the treatment was not done!
Now we are home with leg pain from Dsa (bigger catheter was used due to SAC) and any positive experiences about clipping surgery will help us so much us!! Thanks in advance so much!! We could have monitor it but this is not a solution for my wife due to panic attacks and constant fear. We really hope we have taken the right choice! Thank you all so much..please help my wife with your thoughts and experiences about clipping procedure and recovery!!!
Welcome George and thank you for starting a new topic, well done! I’ve not had a craniotomy so can’t speak to it but we have a lot of members who have and I hope some come here and talk to you. Meanwhile, see if you and your wife can learn and practice some type of relaxation breathing. I promise that if done all the time, all day long it will become second nature and you’ll not have to think about using it when it’s really needed. Hopefully, your wife has learned what her body does at the very beginning of a panic attack and can start the relaxation breathing immediately. She also needs to stay hydrated, helps us and helps the medical team. Do t forget to give each other hugs, hugs increase endorphins which make us feel good.
A big welcome to both you and your wife from someone else here in the States. I am thinking of you both, as I am sure you must be anxious about tomorrow.
Like @Moltroub, I too had have had coils and stents, so unfortunately, I cannot help you much regarding a clipping procedure, although I can recall being how anxious waiting for brain surgeries can be! However, via some related conditions to my aneurysm, I have had a couple of more “traditional” brain surgeries (shaved head, etc.), so I can speak a little bit about the experience of that type of brain surgery.
One thing that many of us experience afterwards is fatigue. It sounds so easy, but it is a different experience than just being tired pre-rupture. I once heard a fascinating fact that our brain is only 1-2% of our body’s weight, but it takes up something like 20% of our energy. After brain surgery, many of us require more time to rest and take it easy. Be patient. We think of healing not in terms of days, but weeks or sometimes even months or years - but that depends on what you experienced.
As @Moltroub referenced, one of the most important things you can do - as both easy and as hard as it seems - is to practice some breathing exercises, as they can help to calm us down.
I am linking to two quick videos that you may want to try:
Best of luck. I am having an ACOM aneurysm clipped tomorrow. Size, placement, and other factors made clipping the best option as coiling/stenting would likely have been unsuccessful.
My wife did the clipping this morning and everything went ok. The operation lasted 4 hours and now she is sleeping in a normal hospital room (not ICU). She is taking oxygen, IR, Salts / hydrates and there is a leg squeezer to prevent blood clots. When she awakes she falls asleep immediately. One time before, she complained about nausea and they gave her something, i think sodium chloride. Now she is one hour and a half in this room sleeping and i am next to her hoping she will awake and talk to me!!!
Don’t worry Tjwell1. I bet your surgery tomorrow will be as smooth as ours! We had also in Acom. You have our thoughts and all our positive energy!!! In a few days you will earn your life again without worrying about aneurysm rapture. Best wishes!!!
All is ok. She speaks well she is neurological ok the doctor said we can do the ct tomorrow because he is sure. She is sleepy. The only issue is that she had nausea and she didnt eat yet due to vomiting. She has good psychology and in a few hours she will try to get up to get rid of the catheter. She didnt have any pain at all and today all pain killers are gone except apotel.
On day four (yesterday) we exit hospital and we drove 5 hours by car back home. My wife was fine and she immediately had a shower instead of rest. Afterwards the nightmare began. She had a fever (now is gone) but a very strong headache began. She was suffering so much that we thought we must go to the hospital but the doctor of surgery said no. Today the headache continued and now she has also a terrible pain on both legs. She is taking paracetamol and Ibuprofen and lonarid every 4 hours but no relief.She cant eat or sleep.She is crying and i feel desperate and i am thinking to go to the hospital tonight. It was such a big mistake to drive back home!!! Any thoughts please……Thank you so much.
PS: She has not evacuate since six days and i gave her duphalac but nothing. She just go for pee to the wc very often
This is both good and bad news. Good that your wife had recovered well but the rest of the story doesn’t sound good. In my opinion it might be best if you take her to the hospital to get an assessment. Maybe she has developed a urinary tract infection ? You wrote that she has to go to the bathroom very often. It is not unusual that we get an UTI after having a urinary catheter and I suppose she had the catheter for several days. It also appears that she is constipated and it can hurt like “dickens “. I had similar problems after my rupture and two weeks in the neuro icu, it was very painful until it resolved. My family doctor gave me advice how much Dulcolax and Miralax I should take. When that had resolved and I got antibiotics for my UTI everything was fine. I know that we are not in the position to give medical advice, but I think that if your wife is in so much discomfort and pain it’s best to have medical professional to take a look at her.
I think she needs help with this, perhaps they would give her an enema so she empties her colon……and also to figure out why her legs are hurting. please tell us how everything goes.
I’m with @oct20 on this - good news and the not so good news. I do hope you’ve taken her back to hospital by now, despite the 5 hour drive. If she’s decided she can’t handle the drive, have you called the surgeon back? Make sure you let him know she has not had a bowel movement and how many times she is urinating. I am totally ignorant of the health care system in Greece, but if you have an Urgent Care that you can take her to that’s closer, you might try that. It’s a walk in facility we have across the country and the doctors are family doctors usually. If that’s not available and she still doesn’t want to take the 5 hour drive, can she get in to see her family doctor tomorrow? If it was BH, I’d be put in the car and taken to the closest Emergency Room with no choice. Not having bowel movements means impaction to me and it can be extremely painful and as I understand it on the dangerous side. Please let us know how she’s doing.
She has taken an enema this morning and thankfully it worked! The problem now is severe muscle cramps in both legs with a lot of pain also in the head. I think because she didn’t sleep all day and she has taken some walks around the house and she got exhausted. Any experiences like this?
Your wife is so lucky to have you. Good to hear she is “relieved.” I have not had clipping (yet?), but had a diagnostic angiogram a few days ago and just re-reviewing the discharge instructions, when you should go back to get checked out, etc. and came across this that I snipped out:
If possible, may be good to stay ahead of the constipation for this week or so, if she on Opioids?
Also, I don’t know IF this is relevant to her, but at least for me post-angiogram, it specifically highlights above regarding legs… feet. and then it lists below.
As @Moltroub noted, it may be worth a visit to your local ER or clinic and/or a call to your neurosurgeon’s office in the morning.
I hope she gets some rest tonight. You too.
Speaking of which, I did find some solace and calm last year after my initial rupture/ICU stay with some mediational music (ask Alexa if you have one?), which I continue to listen to for naps to help my mind from dwelling on “all of it.” Or whatever mellow music she might like.
I hope that today is a better day than yesterday. Good that she got an enema to get some relief from her constipation. I searched information about Lonarid and it seems that it can give constipation too so be aware of that and stay ahead of this problem.
I have been thinking about the same as @Karla mentioned. Your wife must have gotten some discharge instructions from the neurosurgeon. What to expect during her recovery, what to look out for, whom you should contact and where to go if she is experiencing discomfort. It’s Monday when you get our messages, make sure that you call her doctor or visit the emergency room to figure out why her legs are hurting. It is better to be safe than sorry……….It also seems that she hasn’t been resting much since she came home so she must be exhausted. I guess she got stronger painkillers, maybe morphine at the hospital than she has at home. Perhaps this is why her head is hurting so much, the painkiller from the hospital started to wear off when you were driving home and the painkillers she has now is not as effective?? I think you have to ask your neurosurgeon about that too . The recovery for the type of surgery takes a long time, longer than she might expect.
Morning from the States Gio and wife!. Happy to read the enema worked! Besides what @Karla and @oct20 mention, is she hydrating enough? I’ve not had a craniotomy, just a few endovascular procedures and always have to up my water and electrolyte intake, along with protein. Ask the doctor how much she needs to aim for daily.
Today was a better day so far. My wife has taken electrolytes Na, Ca and Mg and a physiotherapist make her a leg massage and no cramps appear so far. Also the leg pain thankfully has reduced a lot! Thank you all so much for your messages…In three days she will remove the staples and i am wondering if you have any experiences about it. We will remove it here in a local surgery so we wont have to travel in Athens again. We continue paracetamol, Ibuprofen and Lonarid. Also i am thinking to give her some protein from a pharmacy. Today we avoid walking so much in order to avoid exhaust and cramps. Thank you again all so much!!
@Gio I’m happy to hear the good news. A change in the right direction and some help from a physical therapist is great. Is the headache still as strong? I think it is common after a clipping surgery but I’m not sure. It is best to ask the neurosurgeon or his nurse about it. Can you give them a call? You didn’t say anything about the frequent bathroom runs to urinate, is it better ?
I didn’t had the clipping myself, I ruptured and got coils to stop the bleeding and six months later I got a stent inserted into my brain. A hole was drilled into my skull to evacuate the blood through a tube when my aneurysm ruptured. It was just a small hole and I think I had five sutures or staples. I didn’t feel any pain when these were removed. I’m sure your wife has many more sutures than I had but I would be surprised if it will hurt. Hopefully someone else can write something to you. Make sure that your wife rests a lot and she doesn’t get too exhausted. Drinks water and protein from the pharmacy is a good idea. You are doing a fantastic job helping your wife! This community is a blessing for all of us aneurysm people and caregivers who need support. Please keep us updated when you feel for it and have the time.
Sounds like terrific news all going in the right direction! Well done!
Never had a craniotomy but if I recall correctly, some folks have headaches afterwards for a while. I think it may have a lot to do with pain tolerance and where the surgeon entered. Everyone here has similarly different symptoms. But absolutely touch base with the surgeon’s team. Patient portal is probably the best way. While you’re asking questions through the portal, ask how much ibuprofen she should be getting. One of my Neurologists warned me about not taking too much NSAIDs as they can cause secondary headaches. I couldn’t take it more than three times a week, I could take Tylenol had to be careful with that as well. But absolutely check with her surgeon and do what they suggest.
