I have been diagnosed with a 4mm anuerysm in June. Before this I was concerned because I suffered a concussion and had another episode of passing out. My neurosurgeon says that these episodes had nothing to do with the aneurysm however in my gut I feel that they did. I had a family history of ruptured aneurysm (an aunt and first cousin). My aunt died and my cousin made it through with no deficits. My family is encouraging me to go ahead with the surgery. My surgeon says it is up to me when I want to do the surgery. I could wait for six months and have another angio. Friends are on the fence. Some says definitely have the surgery now and others say wait. I don't know anymore. I need help.
Hi Gwen.
Only you can decide what you want. I know for some doctors 3 mm ani's they watch. I guess it depends on where and what problems you are having.
I asked myself if knowing I had a aneurysm was or wasn't something I could live with in a calm state of mind. My ani was 7.5 mm. My stress level was too high for me not to go forward with the craniotomy. I had to have it done to move on. I just accepted it and felt if God wanted me either way he would or wouldn't take me. With deciding to have it done, a calmness immediately came over me and I found peace till the day of the operation. Even wheeling me into the op room I was calm.
Alot of the above family situations probably are common in families. My Dad and niece both had surviving strokes. For myself I have had bad head injuries from falls down stairs, tripping, etc for years prior to ever finding my aneurysm. Finally realized through medical tests it is because of my lack of balance which I complained about for years to my neurologist. Nystagmus, nerve damage, passing out since I was 20, herniated discs, etc etc. I too was told that all of my above has/had NOTHING to do with the aneurysm. They say they do not know what causes aneurysms. My ani was found by accident because I developed a blind spot in one eye and all the eye/retina specialist could find nothing wrong. MRI found it and again, they blind spot was not caused by my aneurysm I was told. By the way, the blind spot went away just before my MRI, but I went ahead and had the scheduled MRI just incase it came back.
Weigh all your options, write them down and cross out what you can or can't accept in moving forward with your choices. I wish you the best, but again it has to be what you feel in your heart and with knowledge.
Best wishes and prayers to you. We all know making that decision is hard but once you do you just have to accept it or you will constantly battle with your own inner thoughts. Also, having huge confidence in your surgeon is of big help to ease your mind. Jeanne
p.s. if I was repetitive I apologe. I tend to rattle on and on, lol
Hi Jeanne and thank you for your advice. After thinking about it and reading the stories on this site, I realized that the decison to have the surgery was the right one. That is until I read a letter on the site in which the spouse of someone who had gotten the surgery was in a bad place because of the changes in his wife's personality. She lost her filter and would embarrass him when they would go out with friends and family. It scared me. I never want to embarrass my husband or make him ashamed of me. He had to come to grips with the fact that the person who was saying those things was not the women who he married but was a product of the surgery that she had. My family is wonderful but I am not confident that they could deal with s omething like that. Change in my personality is my greatest fear about the surgery. I am having diffculty with this aspect of having the surgery. I thank you for all your support and hopefully I calm down and make the right decision for me. However right now I'm just confused and scared.
Hello again. Keep in mind that that either choice can be good or not so good. I felt the same but also knew having it fixed or not I could end up neither rehab, permanent damage or worse. Also, I sent you a friend request. I forgot to add I live in the HV area, not far from you and probably we have the same surgeon. I completely had and have faith in my surgeon from day 1, but of course that is no guarantee because sometimes life is beyond our or anyones control.
Find peace in your choice. Jeanne
Hi Gwen,
This decision you are dealing with is one I recently made. My surgery is scheduled for Aug. 28. When first given the choice I was so upset because I didn’t know how I could possibly make the right choice. I started by praying and asking others to pray for me. Then I did a ton of research. After researching I made a pros and cons list for each option. This list helped a lot. However what ultimately made me feel good about getting the clipping is that there is 10% chance of anything going wrong from infection to death but if it ruptures there’s a 40% chance of death. That is something I just couldn’t live with especially since I have 6 beautiful children. I know how hard this decision is to make and you have to decide what is best for you. I will be praying for you. God bless! Mary
I agree...with Jeanne...You are the only person who couldn't truly make the decision...that can change if it ruptures...if you are not prepared at this point...please get a 2nd opinion.
I collapsed before my aneurysm was found and when I went to ER and the Brain aneurysm was found...well later I was told that was due to my aneurysm leaking. Since my coiling...I did have a concussion, but no bleeds...my point...you have a brain aneurysm and you truly need answers...if you go to Mayo clinic website...and type in "brain aneurysm" one of the items, gives you questions to ask...perhaps you should copy and see a Doctor and another to can make the best decision for YOU...~ Colleen
Hi Gwen
I had a 5.9 mm aneurysm. This was on the small side. As no doctor felt it was an emergency situation, I took my time researching aneurysms, treatment options, and most importantly, surgeons. Once I decided on surgery (clipping) it was only weeks before I had the surgery done. My thinking was, "why wait?" I did not want to live with a potential time bomb in my head. Headaches gave me anxiety. I was not living life to the fullest out of fear. I knew I was going to have surgery so I was not going to put off the inevitable.
With that said, it is entirely up to you. Only you can decide what is best for you. Is the surgeon suggesting coiling or clipping? They are two very different procedures with different risks and recovery times.
Terri
Hey Gwen..
I know that all this "brain surgery dillema'" and the pro's/con's and what if's of all procedures have got you rattled and tensed up.... Your family history speaks volumes however , and God knows that alone has got to be scary...but thankfully yours was caught and you can actually make your own decision about which procedure to get. My 1st annie I had no choice as clippings were the only game in town, the 2nd one was different in that the annie ruptured on me while at work--resulting in a 6 week coma, a shunt, a messy trache which still looks awful to this day, and a coil (which totally compacted 3 years later, lucky to have that fixed by way of a clipping)...I had no choice in my treatment options nor did my husband at the time ofcourse. My husband, my folks, my friends, went thru pure hell as they were told that IF i came out of the coma there was little chance of me coming back as "me" and I'd likely have to spend a year or so in a rehab and learn how to talk, walk, etc. (I walked out of the hospital within a week after I came to, no rehab, same 'ol Janet yet 35 lbs lighter) .Everyone, including my doctors, were stunned.
.The severity of what I'd gone thru really hit home when my Dad said to me a few months after I got out of the hospital : :"I thought i'd never be talking to you again". The point of all this Gwen is , don't let this type of thing happen to your husband or family...PLEASE get treatment and don't become a statistic! I was the luckiest lady I've ever known--that was my winning lottery ticket to be sure, but the odd's are not in your favor that you'd be as fortunate as I was, period. If indeed you decide to for go treatment at this time, do you think you'd make it thru each day comfortably and not think twice about the annie? If you've any doubt or questions concerning your Surgeon, you have the option of getting more opinions,, one thing for certain though, you need to do something about this ticking time bomb in your head...I don't mean to sound pushy but, maybe I am pushy--for good reason! lol none of this is easy, peace to you as you get thru it! Janet
Janet, you went through one heck of an ordeal. Thankfully we have this group of friends to help us through it all. Jeanne
Hi again. Would like to meet you. You live in the HV area but I am not familiar with the area yet having just moved from Westchester. My suirgeon works out of the Medical Center in Valhalla. Is that where you are getting treated. Liked the surgeon but was not crazy about his assistant who was supposed to answer a lot of questions I had about the surgery. I have learned a lot from the people here on this site and this woman was not on point. In fact, she was dead wrong on several different questions that I asked her. Losing my confidence in this surgeon if she is the one who is representing him. Still like the surgeon but going to get another opinion from another doctor in NYC. Thanks for all your help. Talk to you soon I hope.
Thank you Mary for your thoughts and prayers. Those statistics are staggering. Somewhere in my mind I felt that I had heard something to that effect in my surgeon office. Upon my first meeting with him he told me so many things that were so hard to hear that my mind couldn't take it anymore and left my body and couldn't hear anything that was said. I think it is so hard because people believe we will live forever, even though you are not and then your own mortality hits you in the face and POW!!!! You space out and become depressed. At least for me. I want to be hear to see my grandchildren grow up and maybe get married. That would be nicee and now there's a real chance that I will not even see them enter first grade. It all depends on the choices I made not. It's not a moral choice between good and evil for me that would be easier much easier. So I'm trying to get information as much as possible before I make the decision that I will have to live or die from. It's so difficult. Thank you for your prayers and continue to pray for me as I will for you.
Hi Colleen! Thank you for that very valuable information since I have not as yet visited the Mayo Clinic website. I have not been researching and coming on this website for the past couple of days because I had aneurysm overload. I was so panicked about the problem I wanted to know everything there was to know. Now I don't want to know anything. My family encourages this behavior by shutting me down every time I mention something about surgery or something I came across on the website or other places. Sometimes I get so de sperate to talk to a real person. My keyboarding skills are pretty good however sometimes I feel like I can't get the words out when I come on a website and talk to people who can be very valuable to me at this time. I'm working on that since I have no one else this is going to be something I going to go through by my self for the most part. I feel abandoned. However I can't ignore what's going on with me so thank you again for all your information. God Bless
Hi Terri! Thank you for your response. My surgeon is recommending clipping as I would not be a candidate for coiling. I totally relate to the feelings of panic that you go through when you know you have an aneurysm and have not made the decision for the surgery yet. You feel like to clock is ticking away and at any time the alarm will ring and you are not ready. Based on what I'm hearing from the res ponses to this discussion is go with my gut. Thanks again. God Bless
Hi Jeanne!
I look at every one on this site as Miracle Makers--One very awesome group indeed ! (And to think I accidently stumbled upon this place about 8 months ago, now the BAF is part of my everyday life!) Peace to you and stay healthy! Janet
Thanks for the info Jim. I feel much better already. That was really troubling me. I'm have a more positive attitude toward the clipping surgery already. Thank you. God Bless.
Thank you Janet for sharing that with us. I realize how serious it is but the attitude of the people around me make me feel that I'm over reacting and taking it too seriously. No phone calls from friends or family, In fact because I was given away at birth my family denies that I exist with the exception of my sister who gave me the family history of the aunt and first cousing or else I would be cut off from this information. I think everyone feels if they just keep quiet and not talk about it it will all go away like a bad dream. However it is not a bad dream this is my life and I am tired of sitting around with my mouth shut so you can be more comfortable in your state of denial. After reading all of the responses to my discussion I am going to get all the information that I can possibly get together, continue to visit this site and if I have to go it alone then I will. Thank you for sharing and God Bless. Gwen
Gwen,
You Go Girl ! this IS a serious situation weather your family members think so or not--I'm sure they're confused as you don't LOOK like you're ill and you're not in a hospital, so then it easily becomes a non issue to them almost automatically.
One thing you need to know is, we're all here and we all care, you won't be alone in this ( Not when you have people like me bugging you, afterall !! ) Lol, talk to you soon,
Janet
Gwen, I sent you a email with the info you requested.
I know how you feel. At times, post op I've been made to feel like I only had a splinter in my thumb removed, so to speak. To often a illness that is not visible is not respected/treated with the care it deserves. I have very little family and only a few people that I can talk to, but never on an ongoing basis. People see you as alive, walking, talking and breathing but they do not see what's going on inside your head and how the healing process can make things more difficult. I'm older so, like many, dealing with the symptoms of menopause, loss of memory, etc which compounds my healing. Going through the procedure I was treated different, but postop is way different, lol. People don't realize that it takes more time to heal for most and very little for some. Also depends on ones age and health.
You haven't had it and its horrible to hear that your pre-op support is not there for you like it should be. Gwen, I am here. Your friend Jeanne
Thank you sao much Janet!! Everyone here has been so supportive. I feel blessed to have all of you. Keep bugging me to get off my butt and get this thing over with. I am now motivated to make a date for my surgery and also I want to talk to another su rgeon to see what answers he has to my questions even though you guys have been so helpful I don't feel like I need many answers. I just want to see if he is on the same page as I am. Lucky for me I live near a big city so finding a surgeon who thinks like me won't be hard I hope. Thanks again girl. Talk to you soon.