Hey Terri,
The 1st aneurysm was growing rather rapidly and as it did so, the annie literally snapped my 3rd optic nerve in two (One hard to imagine Grand Daddy of 'em all Headache) So Thats what brought me into the ER and the following morning I had an emergency clipping...At that time( 1998) there were no other options other then to have a clipping, and in retrospect ,I'm glad , as that left the guesswork out of decision making! the 98 clipping was quite a lot harder to recover from then my 2010 clipping though, basicly due to the involvemnt in 98 with my vision/nerves (I had double vision a solid 4 months afterward) in 2006 I had an aneurysm on the opposite side from the 1998 scene, but, like a big Ostriche, I pretended it wasn't an issue ( then I collapsed while at work, resulting in a 6 week coma, shunt, trache, and coils due to an SAH) So in 2006 I had little choice but to go with the coils as there were no options given to my husband..I got out of the hospital with my coils in early 2007 and all went fine until one night, out of the blue, I suddenly got hit with the exact same inner skull pain that I remembered having right before my collapse in 2006--this time, luck was on my side as I hadn't gone comatose again, but I really thought that I had yet another aneurysm to deal with. Turns out the coils had compacted and that was the pain I felt...I was rushed back to the same hospital were they placed the coils in 2006, and that's when I learned a significant lesson: If you've got a doctor who you neither trust much nor like, and if you feel his care of you is lacking, and if you're able to, BAIL . My 2006 Neuro was a crock I found out, and the big obvious clincher was that he never had me scheduled for aftercare angiograms to see how my coils were fairing, infact I had no clue I was to have any aftercare really and didn't know that the coils had a %25 rate of failure( until mine ofcourse! ) He infact told me there was just :""too much blood" for him to see what was going on in my b rain, and sent me home "for three weeks, then come back for followup care" (Ticket to ride was then and there)! Got out of there and headed to another hospital, a Catholic one with tons of money and good equipment to see past my bloody brain! I found a wonderful NeuroSureon who gave me the choice of more coils or a clipping, and I jumped at the clipping offer, hands down. I never wanted to have to deal with that kind of pain or "sudden failure" of the coils compacting again.
The 2010 clipping was so much easier to recover ftom too, no involvement with my eyesight--big difference for me--and no cutting thru the temporal muscle (they did in 98) , and I felt very confident in my doctor and loved the hospital.
Incisions are well hidden, both of them...My shunt removal scar however is another story, very visible depending upon how I wear my hair (the 2006 doctor and his handy work). I can't say I've suffered much after any of my procedures really, and it was by the Grace of God that the 6 week coma was more like a deep sleep! I walked out of the hospital a week after coming to, with only slight right sided weakness to work thru. no headaches after any of the procedures, I was off work 3 months on each clipping, (the coma/coil was a years disability afterwards, only because the doctor assumed the worse case outcome). I've been blessed. Totally.
my Aneurysms were both so different from one another, both in their symptoms and in their subsequent repair(s).... Hope I didn't bore you with all the detail ! None of this is easy ofcourse, I just hope you're able to make a choice that you and you Neuro can agree on, and I'm sure you will--knowledge is power, ask a zillion questions, you'll be fine. Take Care, Janet