Hi,
I am brand new here and a caregiver for my boyfriend.
He has a giant right ventricular aneurysm (35mm), he had surgery (endovascular, coils and stents) on April 5, after finding it via an MRI after having some swallowing problems. Since then it has been a road of ups and downs. The first day post surgery he has mass affect and needed to be reintubated, he then fought pnemonia after. He ended up having a Peg tube (hopefully temp) placed in order for him to feed himself while he heals, as silent aspiration has been an issue.
We were able to go home after about a month of ICU, Hospital and Rehab. He was onto Day Rehab and doing quite well even passed onto soft foods after a swallow evaluation!
Then things seemed to start going a little downhill and it was hard to tell if he was just having a few bad days or something else. Well, now we have been back in the ICU for a week and a half. When we went in his Sat. O2 was very low and he then became unresponsive, so they intubated him again and then decided to do a trach (hopefully temporary). He did well friday to monday - being off the ventilator. Then Monday night I noticed he was not waking up as usual - turns out his breaths were to shallow and he was retaining C02. So back on the vent…numbers got better, but he did not respond as they expected.
He also has hydrocephalus which he was doing well with but since he was not responding they decided to place an EVD and see if that helps. It does seem to helping, but hard to tell if it is significant enough to place a stent.
His Neuro Surgeon does seem hopeful that now that he is going off one of the antiplatet meds the aneurysm will start to get smaller and start seeing some of the positives of this surgery…it just looks like it is going to be a much longer road than expected…
curious, if anyone else has been through something similar…and to connect!