Hello all, newbie here with a recently found 4 mm unruptured aneurysm in the right Anterior Communicating Artery at A1/A2 segment

[2hotinPHX]

Glad I found this website with the help of AI. Thanks to all for sharing your stories and giving hope to others with an aneurysm.

Sorry this might be a long one. Mine was an incidental finding while looking into pain in my upper back and neck radiating into the back of my head at times, along with just feeling slightly off like when coming down with a cold. My regular doctor suggested I see a Neurologist.

The neurologist decided to run some scans and suggested some physical therapy too. At age 63 every new ache or pain freaks me out. Physical therapy has been helping with the pain and I was feeling a sense of relief. Meanwhile the tests were coming back all good until the Neurologist calls on a Friday around 5:30 PM. Very brief conversation…“by the way they found an un-ruptured aneurysm..we will get it checked out by the best…don’t worry…have a good weekend”

Life as we know it stops! The delays between doctors sending referrals to other doctors that were not in our network is so frustrating. So glad we have the internet these days to do your research. Some stress was relieved to find out we are one of the lucky ones to find an aneurysm before a rupture and have time for a non-emergency situation.

We finally get an appointment with an in network neurosurgeon and he has a great background and reviews. Not sure if we can or should share their name here? The day before my 3 PM appointment the office calls and says due to an emergency they have to reschedule. Uggg.. The next available appointment is a month away. I take the appointment and ask to be put on their cancellation list. A few hours later they call me back and say they had an AM cancellation for tomorrow with the same doctor. Wow we got real lucky and we are back on schedule. What a roller coaster ride it’s been.

So we meet with the neurosurgeon last week and he is pretty good at explaining the situation. Due to the location and size at this point he is leaning towards the clipping procedure. He said it is kind of the gold standard for my situation. More aggressive treatment and down time for better long term results. He is trained in both methods and said due to location he thinks this is the best way to proceed in my case. We have scheduled the cerebral angiogram for Oct 7th so they can get a better view and come up with the game plan. From shared experiences here I will make sure they provide plenty of pain meds for this.

From my AI researching: Clipping requires opening the skull. Ok I am slightly freaking out over this part! It has a slightly longer initial recovery time but offers a very high rate of complete, permanent cure with a very low risk of the aneurysm ever recurring.

So a few questions do come to mind for those who had the clipping procedure done.

What was your experience in recovery like?

Was it weeks or months until you felt like yourself?

Are there things you notice are different now?

Has your personality changed?

Are people who have had aneurysms repaired more cautious now or did you celebrate surviving by taking up skydiving or other thrill seeking adventures?

Thank you for the link to these music therepy videos. I have recently been rediscovering listening to music with earphones. The clarity and stereo separation is amazing even in something like the below inexpensive set I picked up at Bestbuy.

I would also recommend below for those looking to explore music from all over the world try Radio.garden out too.

Explore live radio by rotating the globe

30 Minute Focus - Dreamlight ⚡ Brain.fm ⚡ Music for Maximum Focus and Concentration

[FinWhaleFan]

Hello and welcome @2hotinPHX (your “handle” makes me chuckle!) -

I am sooo sorry about the to-and-fro you have had me with the medical team thus far. So happy you were able to get it rescheduled so quickly so you didn’t have to wait another month or so to get things moving.

To your first question, our Moderators do allow people to post doctor/clinic recommendations but ONLY if it is a positive review. Your options are either to:

1. Post in the “Topic” Recommend Doctor or Clinic.
2. Add on to a continuing posting “What doctors have you liked (positive reviews only, please)?”

My brief background (for context) is that I ruptured, and ended up with a couple of other conditions as a result of the rupture. My repairs for the aneurysm were endovascular, so I can’t speak about a clipping specifically. As a patient, I would hear that a clipping is “one and done,” which in my non-medical layperson opinion presumes that means endovascular may take a few rounds to occlude (“kill”) the aneurysm off which is what happened with me. That is definitely a plus with a clipping!

However, the other conditions did require me to have more “traditional” brain surgery so I did the shaved head, staples, etc., etc. twice (18 staples down the main incision and about 5 or so in a second incision). Certainly the rupture changed the trajectory of my life, but it has not dramatically altered my personality. FWIW, I have a PICA aneurysm (back of the brain), but my shunt is located on my right front so those are the parts of my brain that have been impacted. Not having had a true experience with a clipping, I will leave it to those who have to tell you about their experiences since that will be far more helpful to you!

… and thanks for the Skullcandy recommendation! Throughout this experience, I have become a fan of Brain.fm as it helps me tremendously to manage life post-rupture! What is funny is that just a couple of hours ago, I pulled out my headphones for my afternoon walk, and noted that it is starting to fall apart so I put on the mental to-do list to get a new pair (because of my shunt I can’t use wireless ones, so a wired set is just what I need!)

I am sure you will hear from the clip-pers soon enough, but please let us know how else we can support you!

Fin Whale Fan

[2hotinPHX]

Thanks for the reply and sharing some of your experience.

The knowing and not knowing really put everything into limbo. I really wonder how this will all play out. Will I have a new outlook on life. I already have an appreciation for just stopping and smelling the roses so to speak. Now this slap in the face wake up call has me wondering what if? What if what? I don’t know what I don’t know.

[Moltroub]

Great first topic! Never apologize for writing too much, it’s how we all learn and can better support each other!

The not knowing what we don’t know can certainly frustrating! (Had a chuckle over that). Personally, I don’t like not knowing, never have, I’ve always loved to learn, still do.

Big thank you to @FinWhaleFan for posting good things about doctors/ hospitals and providing the links! We do have to be careful. Pretty sure no one wants to be in a lawsuit for libel. If I have a bad experience, I usually name this person “nitwit” I’m sure there are better names but it’s the one I always remember.

Haven’t had a craniotomy, did rupture, didn’t change my personality too much. I did start talking a lot which I wasn’t prone to do before. The stent helped a good bit in letting me be quieter. It has taken me several years to get to where I’m at now. I ruptured Nov 7, 2013. I still see improvements, not as fast as when I was younger but everything seems to slow down as we get older.

I’m a frequent flyer to PT. Remember to keep doing the exercises they teach you when you get done. Otherwise it’s not going to help in the long run.

If you do a search using the magnifying glass for craniotomy, you’ll find a plethora of personal stories. Keep in mind every one of us is different and though our stories sound similar. Some members have more trouble than others, I think, but do not know, because I haven’t gone back to search each member that folks who suffer from anxiety or other mental health issues have a more difficult time. It’s just something that I am naturally curious about given my education and career choice. To me, I see a correlation with mindset going in and coming out. But like any procedure, personality changes can occur. You just have to remember that neuroplasticity will help our brains reroute the synapses so messages get through, be patient, give yourself grace.

I really appreciated these photos from @MillieNYC19 here 2 Weeks post Right Pterional Craniotomy and Microsurgical Clipping of RMCA aneurysm . You can find several more, this was the latest I do believe.

I have also heard craniotomy procedures is mostly a once and done. We have a few members who have to have a follow up endovascular procedure but not near as many as those of us who start out with endovascular procedures.

Remember to ask a lot of questions to your surgeon, write them down and if you don’t understand, absolutely do not shake your head in agreement. I always warn members because folks just seem to do it naturally. No harm to ask him to dumb it down. Hopefully more folks with craniotomy experiences will come share theirs. Give them time as we do cover a wide area of time zones.

[MillieNYC19]

Reading your story really resonates with me. I am so sorry for everything you’ve been through, but I am also so glad you found this community. It sounds like you have handled an absolute whirlwind of stress, second opinions, and medical surprises with incredible strength.

To share a bit of my own experience: I am only about a month and a half post-op, so I am still actively recovering from both the clipping surgery and a stroke.

Here is what my journey has looked like so far, in response to your questions:

The Recovery Experience & Timeline: The first week was hands down the toughest part, mostly due to severe headaches, jaw pain (I could barely open my mouth or chew), and soreness around the incision site from the staples(25 staples in total). Interestingly, I was ordered to wash my hair every day with a gentle shampoo starting the day I was discharged—it felt really weird to touch the incision site at first, but I was extra careful! On day 14, my staples came out. The incision was clean, dry, intact, and healing beautifully. Once those staples were out, washing became much more comfortable, and the physical pain slowly started to improve.

The Fatigue: While the pain eases up, the fatigue is what I am still struggling with most from day one. I feel exhausted after any physical activity—even my regular day-to-day tasks. By the end of the day, I literally need to turn off my brain. Stepping away from screens and closing my eyes has been immensely helpful.

Feeling Like “Yourself” & Residual Symptoms: I am definitely still not myself yet. Multitasking is challenging, and I get frustrated very easily—especially when I cannot do something I used to do quickly and with ease. Keep in mind, too, that I am still working through residual stroke symptoms. For example, I am a bit forgetful, and I still have numbness on my left side, especially in my hand. I still cannot differentiate things like textures (I don’t always know what I’m touching or holding without looking) and can’t reliably tell water temperature, so I have to be extra careful.

Personality & “Thrill-Seeking”: My core personality is still the same. As for extreme activities or celebrations, I can’t comment on those yet because I am just being very gentle with myself right now. But I can tell you that I am profoundly grateful that everything went well.

The Long-Term Outlook: From what the doctors explained, the clipping is considered a permanent cure, meaning you can go on to live a normal life. For me, it’s just a follow-up scan one year post-op, followed by annual check-ups with my neurologist.

My Background & Why Clipping Ended Up Being Necessary For Me:

Our stories actually share a surprising parallel. I had an unexpected stroke back in April of this year. My aneurysm was initially thought to be an incidental finding while being worked up for the stroke, which was a complete mystery for a couple of months because I don’t fit the typical mold (I’m 40 years old, healthy, have 0 risk factors, and all tests showed no cause). The initial hospital I visited told me to take a “watch and wait” approach since it was only 4mm and the perceived risk of rupture was only 1%.

However, after extensive testing and a second opinion, the second hospital discovered via an angiogram that the aneurysm was actually unstable, making a watch-and-wait approach unsafe. After a long discussion with my neurosurgeon, we decided to try coiling it endovascularly because I was so terrified of a clipping procedure. But when he attempted the coiling, he discovered its true instability—its shape and size had changed, and there was a thrombus inside the aneurysm. The procedure had to be aborted because it was too dangerous.

I was immediately scheduled for a clipping days later. During that surgery, they discovered it had already ruptured, and a piece of the thrombus had broken off further down the artery. That was actually the hidden cause of my stroke and my initial symptoms back in April (which had included the biggest headache of my life and left-sided numbness). I was officially diagnosed with an acute ischemic stroke of the inferior division of the right middle cerebral artery (MCA), secondary to a thromboembolism originating from the right MCA bifurcation aneurysm with an intra-aneurysmal thrombus.

All of that to say:

trusting your gut, getting second opinions, and moving forward with a neurosurgeon you trust is so critical. You are doing all the right things by preparing for your angiogram. Take it one step at a time, be exceedingly gentle with yourself post-surgery, and lean on this group. We are all rooting for you!

[2hotinPHX]

Thank you for taking the time to reply and share your story.