New Here

[ardenjay]

Hello,

My name is Arden. Im so glad that i found this site. People here are nice, helpful and very supportive.

The reason why i been reading some of the " ANNIE " threads is because of my mother. She is 63 yrs old and Aneurysms is in our blood line. We just found out two weeks ago that she has a 5 to 6 mm unraptured aneursym at the left MCA bifurcation.
I was kinna disapointed with her doctor because he didnt really gave us a good suggestion when i ask for his opinion. He just told us that there are 3 ways to treat my my mom's annie. First one is by medication,second one is by doing small surgery(i guess this is the coling procudure) and the third one is the big surgery(this might be the clipping).

We will have another appointment with the doctor on April 17th. He told us to gather up all the questions we can ask him.

Right now , we are trying to find as much opinion and information we can get so that we can learn more and pick the best treatment for her aneurysms.


Thanks,
Arden

[silverfern]

Welcome to the site, you have come to the right place for support. Thank God your mum have found this now- though it is hard to feel blessed just now you have to be thankful this annie wasn't found After a rupture - you only have to read a few stories to know thats not the best place to be in.

There are a lot of us here with unruptured annies, some have had surgery, some, like me are waiting for surgery. Be assured you will find lots of support and answers here.

Find a good neurosurgeon and when you go on 17th take a written list of questions. There is NO silly question. Make sure you or someone else can go with your mum and take a pen, write down the answers so you can go over them all later on. My husband did this for me and it was great. You don't take it all in when you are in there so it's good to go over it again later on.

This is scary, no doubt about it but everyone here will tell you - take control, knowledge is power and be positive.

Good luck, lots of love to your mum

Catherine x

[ChrisC]

Arden, welcome ...... I'm so very sorry that your Mom has been diagnosed with this, but as Catherine said, it's VERY fortunate that she found out about it before it did any damage to her by rupturing.

No question is stupid when you're talking about your life. There are so many factors that go into making a decision on what surgery to do. General state of health, size of the neck of the aneurysm and whether it would hold coils well or need a stent to hold them in, or if clipping would be the best way to go. If you explicitly trust your surgeon - that's a major part. He wants good outcomes on his surgery, just like you and your Mom do. If you feel the need to get a second or third opinion, then do that. Please keep us posted on what's happening with her, and remember that we're here to help you in any way we can. My prayers are with you and your family.

[Lyn]

Hi again Arden

Glad you found your way here. One question that does pop into mind here for me, was to ask him (the surgeon) 'what would you do if it was your mother/sister/wife???

They are sometimes reluctant to advise a specific course of action, but that is often an icebreaker where they can express an opinion.

Write all your/her questions down, some to consider may be:

How many of these have you treated?
Were they all successful?
What is the long term prognosis?
How long will mum be in hospital?
What facilities are available for post-operative care?
What follow up care is required (for example, post-op or monitoring angios, CTA or MRA scans)


Anyway, as others have said, write it down she will be in too much of a state getting her head around the whole thing.

Cheers

Lyn :)

[JulieNH]

Welcome Arden,

I agree with what has been said above, but I would add that you shoud be tested as well. Aneurysms have a 15-20% link in heredity, and the gene erupts earlier in the next generation, the doctors call it Genetic Anticipation. In other words, if a parent had an intercranial aneurysm at age 50, their kids tended to have a rupture around 35 years old. Once you have your Mother's aneurysm decisions made, make your own! Since you know it's in your blood line, get checked too. Better safe than sorry.

You didn't say where you were, perhaps one of us can suggest a NS or a NS/IR in your area for a 2nd opinion. Make sure that you and your Mom are comfortable with who you choose, that he/she answers ALL your questions, not blow you off. As was said above, be proactive.

JulieNH

[tg_is_me]

Hi and welcome
I had a 7mm unruptured aneurysm on my left internal carotid artery successfully coiled 8 weeks ago. I had 3 days in hospital and a week at home. I did a lot of research on the net before I made my decision to coil or clip. There are some really great sites around as well as the wealth of knowledge here. I believe the more you are informed the easier it is to discuss things with the NS. Good Luck with everything.

Tina