Newbie with Question

General
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Hello Everyone,

I’m new to the group and am scheduled for surgery to clip a 9mm aneurysm.

Back in 2009, an endocrinologist I was seeing had me do an MRI for some strange symptoms I was having. The MRI showed a possible 4mm aneurysm and the radiologist recommended and MRA. The MRA showed still a possible 4mm aneurysm but also said it was probably a tortois artery or something to that effect and the radiologist recommended a CTA be done to confirm. Well the endocrinologist decided that I did not need that test and that was that. I figured she knew what she was doing.

Fast forward to May 31, 2017…I had what was diagnosed the next day, with a sex migraine. It is a sudden onset excruciating migraine at climax during sex. So my PCP referred me to a neurologist. I still had my old reports from 2009 and also still had the films. The neurologist asked me if it was an aneurysm. I told him I did not know because back in 2009, the endocrinologist would not refer me to have the CTA. He was very surprised and sent me for the CTA on June 9th. I received a call 2 hours later saying that it was definitely an aneurysm and it was now 9mm. I was referred to a neurosurgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center and saw him on Monday 6/12. He scheduled an Angiogram ASAP which was done on Wed 6/14. My family and I decided that clipping the aneurysm was the best course of treatment for me since I am only 46. I am scheduled for surgery next Wed 7/5.

I’m pretty scared and a bit freaked out because it is all going so quickly. An aneurysm growing 5mm is something that My neurosurgeon has never seen. So he rearranged his schedule to get it done ASAP otherwise, it would have been several months because his schedule isn’t open for a few months.

How was your recovery after clipping an unruptured aneurysm? That is my biggest concern now. Luckily I have a great boss who will continue to pay me my full salary for any amount of time I’m off work. Been here for over 22 years now.

Any advice or recommendations are appreciated! :slight_smile:

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Hi Airfield Annie. I had clipping done in January still not fully recovered. The most important thing they cought

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Sorryry they cought it and shedule the operation .Each of us very different and recovery is gonna be not the same. I have my side effects as some smell continuously come oUt from my nose .I still have pain in my incision. I went back to consultant and did CT angiogram waiting for result. Overall I am very happy that I have chance to look after my children and I think you will be OK be brave. I wish you good luck

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Thank you Maya. I’ll be 47 in October and am hoping I will recover in a reasonable amount of time. I had a hysterectomy September of last year and I healed quicker than expected. My biggest fear is any complications during the procedure.

I hope everything turns out okay for you and that your CTA gives you good news!

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I am 44but in compare with me you are very brave I was very depressed absolutely devastated with my diagnosis and nagged all the time. I did a lot of research and with unruptured mostly people fine with some deficits and you just need to adjust with your new yourself. I would advice switch to healthy diet no black tea and coffee. Since my operation I do everyday smoothie spinach and I do not have any dizziness but unfortunately I have other issues.Sill thanks God alive and see my lovely children. I will pray for you on 5th of July and let us know please how are you.
Maya

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Since June 9th, the aneurysm definitely weighs heavy on my mind
constantly. I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to
sleep because I start thinking about it. I have depression as well. But I
have to say my doctor has moved so quickly on it. From finding out about
the aneurysm on June 9th, to having the angiogram on the 14th and having my
surgery put on the schedule on the 15th for July 5th, was less than a
week! This upcoming week is going to take so long to get to. Patience is
not one of my best qualities that is for sure :slightly_smiling_face:

I’ll post an update when I am able to after surgery.

Thanks again for your input Maya!

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AirfieldAnnie, I will also pray for you on Wednesday. I hope everything turns out well for you.

I am scheduled to have a 6mm clipped on August 2nd. I’m starting to get pretty nervous about it and my husband is freaking out. But it has to be done, so…

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My 7mm was found on June 6th and I had it coiled on Wednesday the 28th at Mayo. Yes. 4 days ago. I have no experience with clipping, but I understand your fear. I have a pretty strong faith and relied heavily on that. God got me the diagnosis and the right path to fixing it so I had to trust the process. You are braver than I am. I could not Google any of it, so I only found this site the day after my surgery. I was only in the hospital overnight and am feeling much like my old self before the fear after the shock of having an aneurysm. I’m praying for you. Sending good vibes your way.

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Wanted to add…I’m 47

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Hi, I just had a 7 mm clipped one month ago. I still have a 4.5 and 3 mm that are more than likely going to be coiled soon. The surgery went well and I was scared to death but definitely not bad at all. I have no deficits to date. Try not to worry you will be fine. I was in for 4 days because my blood pressure was high, otherwise all went well. Good luck to you.

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Surprised you can do green smoothie.
First thing my doctor took me off of when they found my aneurysms was ALL dark green leaves, especially your smoothie because of the vitiam k in it, caused clotting.

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Hi!Thats rightYou have to listen what your doctor said. I am just stick to my diet and my doctor mentioned just about redusing coffe and chocolate.
Maya

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Surgery July 5th went well. The surgery took 6 hours. My surgeon ran into a small problem but was able to work around it. I was in the hospital for 4 days. I feel pretty good other than needing tons of sleep. Still working on my stamina and wake up with medium headaches but once I get moving around it lessens. I’m going to try going back to work part time starting Monday July 31st. The 25 staples were taken out after 2 weeks and the incision is healing very well. I will have a regular CT in 4 weeks to check things and then that should be it.

I was scared to death before surgery but I am so glad that I went through with it.

Thank you to everyone who replied. I really appreciate it!

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I had a craniotomy to have a pericallosal artery aneurysm clipped on April 24th of this year. Although initially terrified, the surgery went extremely well. I was discharged on my 2nd day post-op and back to work full time 2 1/2 weeks after surgery. I had a few issues with my incision (don’t pick the scabs!). I continue to have days where I feel off-balance although not to the extent that I can’t drive or work. The neurosurgeon doesn’t think it’s related but after reading several posts on here, I’m not so sure. Plus I have no idea what else it could be.

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And I’m very happy to hear your surgery went well!!

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Hi Sgrknh,

Hope you are healing well, many blessings for a smooth recovery! I wanted to write to you because I also have a 4mm annie on my pericallosal artery (same area as yours), and have opted to wait and monitor to see if it gets bigger before I have surgery…my surgeon also recommended a craniotomy but said I could wait for now and have another MRA in 6 mos. and if it’s gotten bigger, to have the surgery then. So glad to hear the surgery went well for you…how are you doing now? I’m curious about your experience with the whole process, given that ours are in similar places in the brain. how big was yours? Did you wait before you decided to have surgery? What have you experienced symptom-wise post-surgery? Thanks so much and take good care :slight_smile:

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Hi Alyssa!

I’m sorry to hear about your aneurysm. The whole ordeal is so frightening. My aneurysm was discovered 2 years before I had it clipped. I initially opted to go in the surveillance program because the risk of rupture was lower than the risk of surgery. It was 2.3 mm at the time of discovery. I had a repeat CT angio one year later and it showed no change. Unfortunately, my 2 year CT angio screening showed growth and development of a daughter sac so they informed me that I really needed to have it repaired as the risk of rupture had become higher than the surgical risk. I received so much contradictory info on coiling vs clipping, the neuro-interventional radiologist said it could be coiled but the neurosurgeon said due to the location it should be clipped. When having an honest discussion with the NI radiologist, he decided to refer me to a vascular neurosurgeon at the Mayo in Rochester. He said he was the one that could definitively answer the question as to clipping versus coiling since he was both a NI radiologist Plus a neurosurgeon who specialized in the treatment of aneurysms. His name is Dr. Lanzino.

I went to see him and his first words were “Well this isn’t an aneurysm to coil so we’re going to clip it”. Although scarey, I went ahead and scheduled the surgery 3 weeks later. Everything during surgery went extremely well. They used stealth which is absolutely awesome technology for pinpointing exactly where they needed to go to reach the aneurysm. He anticipated 5-6 hours operating time but I went in to surgery at 2:40 pm and was in recovery at 5:30 pm. I immediately checked to see if I could move my legs since the greatest risk was stroke & was thrilled to discover everything worked. I was taken to ICU at 7:00 pm and asked for my phone so I could start calling people to let them know I was okay.

The neurosurgeon would have let me go home the morning after surgery because I was doing so well but I opted to stay one more day as I was a bit off balance and worried my dogs would knock me over. Other than a pretty bad headache & feeling a bit off balance, my recovery went very well. I took one tab of OxyContin the night of surgery but other than that, I only used Tylenol and Motrin so I was actually able to drive 2 days after surgery (although I would recommend waiting a bit longer). I went back to work full time 2 1/2 weeks after surgery and haven’t missed a day since then.

The main issues after surgery were a mild headache for about a week and for about 3 months post-op I occasionally felt slightly off balance but not to the extent that it prevented me from driving, working or doing any of my other normal activities.

It’s now been almost 7 months since surgery and I don’t have any issues related to it other than a bit of a dent in my head. Lol. My surgeon did say I recovered faster than 95% of his patients. I’m 60 years old and I think prayers, a positive attitude and a great surgeon made all the difference!

Sorry… I didn’t mean to write a book. :grimacing: I hope the Information helps. Please keep me posted as to how things are going for you! Are you anywhere near the Mayo in Rochester? I highly recommend Dr. Lanzino. He doesn’t shave your head, either. I know some do. Good luck and let me know how you are. God Bless!

I was trying to send you a picture of my incision but my phone’s not giving me the option.

Sue

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Hi Sue,

Thanks SO very much for your prompt reply, it means a lot and I feel so blessed to have met you! It’s so ironic that not only do we have aneurysms in the same area of our brains (pericallosal artery), but I JUST came back from Mayo on 10/17 where I went and saw Dr. Lanzino for a consultation!! I’m also not a candidate for endovascular repair/coiling…only the craniotomy and the clipping. Dr. Lanzino also told me to wait and keep monitoring it (mine is 4mm and has not gotten bigger in the past 18 pos.), and if it gets bigger to call and schedule the surgery.

I am so, so very happy to read about how your surgery went well, and that you recovered quickly, and with minimal negative effects!! Words cannot describe how thankful I am for you, and how relieved I was to read your story…I had been feeling for so long that surgery was a death sentence. It’s been such an emotional process for me, too, as I’m sure it’s been for you…

Did you notice any cognitive problems at all after the surgery (memory, thinking, etc.)? I have a million questions and thoughts for you…I’ll start with my story to catch your up to date on things with more detail.

In May of 2016 I had a brain MRI for another reason and they found the aneurysm incidentally and referred me to a neurosurgeon. I had an angiogram, then saw a neuro-interventional radiologist who told me that due to the shape/size of it, it couldn’t be coiled and that I would have to see a neurosurgeon that specializes in craniotomies. I saw a few in TX where I was living at the time, and neither of them seemed very upbeat about the prospects (they both said there is a 75-80% chance I would recover without major complications, and Lanzino said that Mayo has a 95% success rate). So, after seeing those folks in TX, I was feeling pretty down about even ever having surgery at all. Both of those surgeons recommended that I quit smoking (I did!), and that I have a repeat scan in 6 mos. My most recent scan was in Sept. of this year, and it showed that it hasn’t grown at all.

So, the last 18 mos have been such a roller coaster of emotions for me…wow. I don’t have any words to describe the emotional process…how was it for you? I have gone from being adamant that I was NEVER going to have surgery, to getting angry as hell, to being terrified again, to crying every day, to finding some peace with it all (and rinse and repeat)! To make a long story short, I decided this past summer that I WAS going to do the surgery, and that I needed to have SOME control over this whole thing, rather than just waiting for something to happen, if it was going to happen. That’s when I scheduled at Mayo, and went. I felt so much better after I went there. Dr. Lanzino was super busy, but answered all my questions, and he said he thought I should wait and if it got bigger, to have the surgery. So, I decided that I will take that advise…have a repeat scan every year and go from there.

Since I went there, I feel more at peace with everything…not sure why. Did going to Mayo affect you that way as well?

I live in WA state now, and I don’t know anyone in MN. I’m assuming you don’t live in Rochester? If I’m right, then how did you work all that out? I’m thinking you had the surgery in Rochester, and then how did you get home? Airplane or driving? Can you fly afterward? And, did you need to go through and physical or occupational therapy/speech therapy afterward? If so, do they arrange that for you in your hometown, or do you go through it in Rochester?

And, that’s great that he doesn’t shave your hair! YEA that’s great news! :wink:
Do you really have a dent in your head?? I’m a bit gullible, forgive me lol…

I love and really appreciate that you wrote a book, and please keep writing books if you would like to because I so enjoy reading them! I’ve written one as well, I think ;-).

All the in formation has helped me so much! Thanks so, so much. I have a million questions, but I’ll just go with the ones I wrote earlier and will add as we go along.

Take good care of YOU, God Bless and be well too, and thanks again!! Looking forward to hearing more,

Alyssa