Author: heiditea

Tea Lover

6-Month Angiogram Tomorrow

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Tomorrow is in my 6-month angiogram to look at the coiling done in Oct. and to check on its healing progress and although I’ve been told the procedure itself isn’t that bad, I’m more worried about the results of the test than anything else.

I wouldn’t have been as worried had I not felt so lousy the last four days. It started on Sunday with head, ear, neck and eye pain and discomfort. I”m sure it’s just sinus, but because I just had a CT scan on my sinus last week and everything looked okay, my mind starts to think it’s something other than sinus….the brain.

Once i kicked my other sinus infection, I was feeling pretty good and exercising and eating better, but since this has hit, exercising is out of the question due to the discomfort in my head and I haven’t had much of an appetite….so now I’m scared.

People will tell me things will be fine, but how can one not be nervous, especially when I’m not feeling very good suddenly. If things look fine on the angiogram then I’ll know for SURE it’s sinus or allergies, or a tooth problem…or…..I don’t know! But at least I’ll know what’s NOT.

I’m just tired of feeling like crap. I have had one angiogram before, but it was right before my coiling and I was pretty out of it. I do remember when they injected the ink. I felt a very hot sensation in my face, but that’s about it.

Hereditary?

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From the February 24th, 2007 issue of Science News.

Aneurysm risk may get passed down.

A heightened risk of having a brain aneurysm seems to be passed down in some families, and the life-threatening rupture of an aneurysm appears to strike earlier in a succeeding generation, a study finds.

An aneurysm is a ballooning of a blood-vessel associated with weakening of the vessel’s walls. While most brain aneurysms never rupture, those that do cause bleeding stroke and are fatal up to 50% of the time.

Past research has shown that about 10% of people who develop a brain aneurysm have a relative who has one, a significantly higher proportion than among people in general, say Daniel Woo, a neurologist at the University of Cincinnati.

Woo and his colleagues contacted 35 families with a history of brain aneurysms. They found that children of a person with a brain aneurysm that ruptured faced twice the risk of having a brain aneurysm than children whose parents had aneurysms that never ruptured. The risk showed up even though the younger people smoked less and had lower blood pressure.

Moreover, aneurysm ruptures in the second generation occurred, on average, at age 41, whereas the ruptures struck parents when they were 56 years old on average.

The search for a genetic defect that could explain the increased risk is under way, Woo says.

Meanwhile, any of the several brain-imaging techniques can detect brain aneurysms, Woo says. “In a family with a strong history of ruptured aneurysms, you might want to test the offspring at a young age.” he adds.

More Family Stuff

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Over the past week or so, I have been in contact with my cousin who had coiling done on an un-ruptured aneurysm a couple of years ago. I was encouraged to hear her sister had had an MRI and everything looked fine, but unnerved by some info I don’t believe I was ever told, or I had forgotten.

My great grandmother died in her fifties suddenly while doing laundry and my grandfather’s sister died while brushing her teeth. I don’t believe, due to the lack of medical advancements at the time, either were diagnosed as aneurysms, but it certainly gives one pause given the fact I have two first cousins who had annies, and then myself.

It’s been nice connecting with her. She had one annie coiled and does have another one that they are monitoring, but luckily there has been no change and she won’t have to go back for another two years for a check up. She was very lucky to have it discovered before it ruptured.

Test and Test Results

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Today I was given the results of my CT scan that I had of my sinuses the other day and all looked good. I’m thankful nothing serious showed up, but disappointed there wasn’t something there that had been causing me all those sinus issues for year. Plan B I guess.

I also received the call on my angiogram appointment. It’s next Thursday! I was thinking maybe two or three weeks out, so I’d have time to prepare (worry!) about it, but not next week. And it’s very early in the morning at 7 a.m. so we’ll need to leave very early to get there. Traffic shouldn’t be a problem at that hour hopefully.

Of course I’m already nervous about the test, even though I have been reassured by other annie survivors that it’s not as bad as one thinks it will be. I hope that is the case.

Then wanting to get the results will be the next thing I worry about. Chances are, things will look fine around my annie, but there ARE chances thing won’t be and I’m trying not to think about that. Trying is the operative word there! How could one NOT think about the good & the bad. Human nature I think. But I’ll try to concentrate on NOT worrying about something I have no control over. Wish me luck!

I have to go in for some blood work and will do that here in Augusta since it’s far closer. I haven’t found out yet when that will be.

I have been feeling good, other than the sinus stuff and being extremely tired after working longer hours, so I should have nothing to be concerned about. Right?