A CT scan in April 2023 showed three unruptured aneurysms. I was then given a second CT scan with contrast that confirmed the diagnosis on August 5 I was given an angiogram with contrast. Images showed 2 unruptured aneurysms, 5.5 and 4 mm in the same cerebral artery with a 3rd “tiny” one that will not be treated at this time. The neurosurgeon discussed coiling treatment planned for “sometime in the fall”. The hospital just called me to schedule my procedure next week (2nd week in December).
I said I had a long list of questions that the Neurosurgeon couldn’t answer about the procedure and requested to speak with the radiologist either in person or over the phone prior to being admitted to hospital. I was told they’ll leave a message for him to call me, but in the meantime, they cancelled the procedure appointment.
I’ve had many many months to dwell on my condition. I have high anxiety and an awful lot of questions about the procedure. Was I wrong to ask to speak directly to the radiologist?
One is never wrong in wanting to seek answers in my opinion. That being said, the Radiologist wouldn’t be able to help you as they do the readings on the CTs you had. The Neurosurgeon is the one you will need to get the answers from as he or she did the angiogram. For all the angiograms I have had, there’s been no radiologist involved, just my Neurosurgeon and the Anesthesiologist. The Anesthesiologist just comes by before any procedure, introduces themselves and leaves the work to the Nurse Anesthetist. The Anesthesiologist walks the hallway and is supposed to be available for the RNA’s if needed.
Prior to any of my angiograms, I usually get a Resident that is supposed to go over all the risks of the procedure. I had them memorized and would correct them when they were incorrect. My Neurosurgeon once sent in a Resident who was a bit full of himself and he was oh so incorrect when he said the risks were minimal. So I corrected him. My Neurosurgeon came in when I was telling him he shouldn’t lie to patients. I was quite upset and got really loud. She looked at the Resident and said something to the effect of needing to learn from me as I knew the risks. After he left the room, she thanked me as she couldn’t get through to him apparently. She has never withheld information. She has never lied to me. However, sometimes she doesn’t know the answer to my questions and will simply say “I don’t know”.
I would call the Neurosurgeon back and reschedule. In the meantime, perhaps one of us can help with the answering your questions.
Thank you for your response, but the Neurosurgeon is not the one that is performing the coiling procedure. It is the interventional radiologist. My questions are about the procedure itself. That is why I wanted to speak with the person who will be actually doing it. The neurosurgeon couldn’t answer some of my questions. For example, I asked can both of the Aneurisms be treated at the same time? Or will I have to undergo two procedures. He said I needed to speak with the radiologist about that. there are many more questions all concerning the actual procedure that when I spoke with the neurosurgeon, he said he didn’t know, and that I would need to ask the radiologist.
That makes total sense to me, thank you for the clarification! I would definitely want to speak to the person doing my procedure before I had it. Good God who wouldn’t? I’ve learned here how different it can be for Canadians than us in the States. But I’ve never read where a member from Canada didn’t have an appointment with their surgeon prior to the procedure for all the things that need to be covered!
It sounds like you have your list of questions ready, good for you! Hold your ground if you can and get them answered. Maybe you can keep calling the Interventional Radiologist’s office for that much needed and for me, expected appointment. In the States, we have a saying that the squeaky wheel is the one that gets greased…
Good luck and please keep us informed, it’s how we all learn!
Thank you so much for your message! I’m feeling more confident in my decision to insist on speaking with the interventional radiologist. I actually was on the same wavelength as you in that I’ve set an alarm for myself to call his office daily until I get a response. I can be very squeaky indeed!
I’m actually a dual citizen but only have hospital part A coverage in the US. My children live there and are urging me to at least get an opinion and an estimate for being treated in California. I’ve hesitated going that route, but I am very frustrated with the Canadian medical system at this point.
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On Dec 12, 2023, at 7:39 AM, Moltroub via Brain Aneurysm Support Community notifications@ben-baf-community.discoursemail.com wrote:
| Moltroub Moderator
December 12 |
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That makes total sense to me, thank you for the clarification! I would definitely want to speak to the person doing my procedure before I had it. Good God who wouldn’t? I’ve learned here how different it can be for Canadians than us in the States. But I’ve never read where a member from Canada didn’t have an appointment with their surgeon prior to the procedure for all the things that need to be covered!
It sounds like you have your list of questions ready, good for you! Hold your ground if you can and get them answered. Maybe you can keep calling the Interventional Radiologist’s office for that much needed and for me, expected appointment. In the States, we have a saying that the squeaky wheel is the one that gets greased…
Good luck and please keep us informed, it’s how we all learn!
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I understand California has some really good Neurosurgery departments, two that come to mind is UCLA and UCSF. Hopefully your children live near one of those. What you can do is have your images sent to a Neurosurgeon near them for a second opinion. Sometimes there is a charge for the surgeon to review them, it depends on where they’re working out of. When BH recently did my Medicare renewal the lady on the phone had a difficult time finding the hospital my Neurosurgeon works at to make sure they were in my plan. I should have asked if it was the same plan I’ve had but I forgot. I forget a lot of things. Since we live in a rural county, there’s no cost to me which is nice. BH was up in NJ on business and I was at home. She let BH do everything but our address change and she had us on a conference call. Fortunately, I know our new address lol.
Hopefully, the interventional neuroradiologist is also communicating with your neurologist or neurosurgeon, who is well informed about the specifics and details of the procedure(s) that the interventional neuroradiologist performed or will be performing.
I have a habit of acquiring personal copies of all medical records and reports of all the tests and procedures that I have gone through. So when I see my neurologist, I take my interventional neuroradiologist reports with me to make sure that he has copies of them too.
Good advice thank you! I finally got an appointment with the interventional radiologist on Jan 8 when I hope you get some answers
Questions that are written down, for you to refer to during the discussion, are a lot more helpful than questions that you are simply recalling during the chat. Hope you have an extra productive conversation.
Welcome again Peter! It’s great advice for us to obtain copies of our medical records, something I learned here many years ago from others. I would recommend to you, @Seek1ngAnswers and our other members to not only have your list of questions ready but to take someone with you who can help with writing down the specialist’s answers. Someone who you know takes good notes. We used to take questions on a note pad but for some reason I started using my phone and would just hand the phone to my Neurosurgeon. She’d go through them so fast we didn’t know which questions she was answering and we’d have to tell her to speak in complete sentences which got us all laughing. Slow your specialist down and don’t nod your head in agreement when they say something you don’t understand. It’s also perfectly acceptable to pin them down to an answer and not give a line of bull pucky, just be ready for them to say “I don’t know” or “In my experience…”. They’re human after all.
Thanks for all the fab advice- Happy Holidays to all!
Hi. I have some experience with this. I had an incidental finding of 2 aneurysms when i signed up for a research brain study, which included an MRI. One aneurysm measured 8mmx4mm and one measured 2mmx3mm.
I took my scans to University Hospitals in Cleveland. I worked at UH for 26 years in radiology as an x-ray technologist, with the last few years, working in CT. I headed back to this hospital because they were my work family.
After the neuroradiologist reviewed my images, he met with the neuro interventional team and it was recommended that i have a neuroangiogram to map out the location and shapes of the aneurysms. After the procedure, the whole group met again to recommend treatment. They recommended coil of the big aneurysm and gave me a date for the procedure.
Wait a minute!! What? Even though I work in radiology, it didn’t mean that I didn’t have questions.!!! After voicing my concerns, I met with the Radiology interventional team who did my angio to discuss the procedures, possible complications, recovery time, why were they only treating the large aneurysm,etc. I will say that it was the neuroradiology team that recommended the consultation with me after they sensed my anxiety.
I had my list of questions, i recorded the entire meeting on my iPhone (Voice memo) so that i could refer to our discussion. They answered all my questions and i felt much more prepared for the coiling.
Knock on wood, procedure went well, i had an mra done about 8 weeks after the procedure, then another meeting with the neuroradiology group to discuss what the next steps would be. For this meeting, i brought another list of questions and recorded that meeting.
I’m happy that you have your meeting scheduled… You’re on the right path.
Thanks so much for the tips and for sharing!