1-year angiogram checkup tomorrow to see how my stent and re-coiling is doing. I’m feeling good, so I’m hopeful. I’m not really nervous, more anxious. We leave for the UK next month and I’m hoping for a clean bill of health. I’m going anyway, but I don’t want to be thinking about it while there.
Category: Coiling
Angiogram Check-Up Scheduled
Even though I thought we had discussed doing this after our trip to the UK in May, the Dr.’s office called and said I was schedule for my year checkup on my aneuryms, stent, and recoiling from last spring.
Dave and I weren’t prepared for this call, nor expected to even think about this until we got back from our trip, but this now forced us to. I had a decision to make.
Of course, every scenario started going through my mind. What if something major has occured with the coiled aneurym? What if the tiny aneurysm has grown significantly? What if the stent has failed? What if? What if? What if?
Then I’d think, but I’d rather do this and get it over with and if everything looks fine, then no harm, no foul and life goes on!
The Paranoid Mind and the Common-Sense Mind had some serious battles all night.
The next morning, I woke up prepared to make the final decision to wait until June when we got back from the trip. Fine! Decision made. THEN….my Paranoid Mind spoke up and said “Heidi, what if you don’t have the angiogram and something happens half way across the Atlantic and there is no place to quickly land to take care of it medically and you suffer severly.?” Well…I didn’t want to have to say “If I had only had the angiogram prior to flying, I would have known there was an issue”. It’s all about the “knowing”….it truly is.
So, then my even Calmer Common Sense Mind spoke up and said Dr. Ecker wouldn’t let me fly if he felt there were serious issues and he felt he had done such a good job with the stent and recoiling last year that I shouldn’t be concerned about the coiled annie. The odds of the tiny annie growing to such a significant size in a year are pretty slim…so……I reversed my decision and decided I’d just rather know. We kept the appointment and I’ll go it on April 11th. That’s a month before we leave for Europe.
Happy 5th Annie-Versary to Me!
Two Weeks Out
Almost two weeks ago, I had my brain aneurysm re-coiled at Maine Medical Center in Portland. I’m doing very well considering the little scare at the end of the procedure.
My headaches have been minor. I have to keep reminding myself that THIS coiling was due to a problem with the aneurysm and not a rupture like it was in 2006, so the tense and dramatic issues my entire body had to deal with almost five years ago was due to the rupture and not the coiling.
A co-worker’s husband had a rupture the day after my re-coiling. He’s very lucky to be alive. And it AGAIN, brings to light just how lucky I was and am.
Fatigue is something I’m still battling, but that’s par for the course with any procedure apparently. I know it will get better. I also need to assist in that regard with eating better and eating foods that increase my energy level and, oh, I don’t know…maybe getting some exercise? Easier said that done….exercise also makes me tired. Right now I’m nervous about getting up at 5:30 to using the treadmill. I’m so sleepy that I’m afraid I’ll lose my footing and crash into the wall behind it. At least…that’s the excuse I’m using right now! LOL
I’ve never weighed as much as I do now, and I’m not crazy about it, but I AM alive. I’m alive.
