Category: Hospital

Angiogram Check Up

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I had my 1-year angiogram (video) check-up yesterday at Maine Medical Center in Portland to see
how the stent, re-coiling, and small aneurysm were doing. I was a little nervous, but more concerned about experiencing pain at the onset of the procedure than anything else. So, I expressed my concern with everyone who would listen. LOL You’re not put completely “under” because they need you to be semi-awake to participate in the procedure when they ask you to hold your breath or hold completely still at certain times.

I was given some minor meds that made me very, very dopey, but I still felt quite a bit of discomfort in the groin when they started to insert the wire (video). I have to believe this particular area of the artery has endured quite a bit over the last 5 1/2 years with multiple angiograms, coiling, stenting and recoiling. There MUST be some scar tissue or something there that makes this part particularly painful. Once that part was over I did not recall too much pain.

Dr. Ecker uses a much smaller catheter which means the puncture hole is so small that an angio-plug or seal is not needed. Unfortunately, that means one poor member of the procedure team is in charge of putting pressure on my groin until it stops bleeding after the angiogram. LOL Thank you Brian! The plug is painful…you were not.

As usual, the staff in the Radiology department at Maine Med were fantastic. From the main reception area to the medical team involved with the pre- and post-procedures, they’re very professional, fun, and attentive. I recalled several names and faces and they even remembered me too, which is kind of sad! LOL That means I’ve been there enough times for them to recall who I am, even with the number of patients they must see on a daily basis.

While I was being wheeled out of the interventional radiology suite, they informed me that Dr. Ecker was already showing Dave the 3D images that had just been taken. Because my glasses were taken away from me before the procedure, I couldn’t see anything or make out any faces, but I heard Dr. Ecker’s voice and Dave’s and as I was being wheeled by they gave me the good news that preliminarily things looked good! So that was fantastic news.

Another off-shoot of using the thinner catheter is that the stay for the patient at the hospital is much shorter as well. Only two-hours in recovery where I had to keep my right leg still and flat and couldn’t raise my head too high in the bed. MUCH better than 4-6 hours afterwards. Two-hours was very doable. I was able to eat a yummy turkey & cheese sandwich, a bowl of fruit and a cookie with Dave’s help. Difficult to eat half laying down without making a mess or choking, but we did it.

So, we left the hospital around 1:30 and were home shortly before 3. After calling my mom, I promptly went to bed and slept for 3 hours. I’m sore and sleepy today, but overall pretty good.

I’ll have my follow-up, in-office appointment with Dr. Ecker a week after next because he’s on vacation next week. I’m hoping that after closer inspection and comparison with last year’s pictures he doesn’t find anything of interest and that we’ll still be cleared for our trip next month. I think, and know, that if Dr. Ecker had seen anything major yesterday he would have informed us of it at that point. He doesn’t mess around and is a straight shooter, which I like.

Good!

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Got a very good report at hospital. Dr. said things look good. I’ll still have a follow-up in his office on 4/23 but we’re cleared for the trip so I’m VERY relieved. I am sore and need to take it easy, but other than that, no complaints. What a fantastic staff in the Radiology Dept. at Maine Med. Thanks for the prayers and good wishes.

That Little Voice

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It’s funny…for the most part, I rarely think about my small unruptured aneurysm on a daily basis. I know it’s there, but I don’t know yet if it has grown in the year since it was discovered or if there are any issues with the larger one that ruptured. I’ll find that out when I go for an angiogram sometime in June AFTER our trip to England & Scotland.

However, with my impending gallbladder surgery FINALLY happening this Friday, that little annoying voice in the back of my head that reminds me of the aneurysms has reared its ugly head. Not that I’m overly anxious or nervous about the gallbladder surgery, but it still is surgery…I’ll still be put under anesthesia and I’ll be having things inserted and an actual organ removed from my body. Things “could” happen….that little voice says.

After yelling at that voice to leave me alone, it’s a simple procedure, and it has NOTHING to do with you for a change, it finally does quiet down. I’ve been treated very well at Maine Medical Center and I liked the surgeon and her staff, so I have no qualms about the procedure itself. I’ve survived a ruptured brain aneurysm, a stenting and recoiling, so this should be a walk in the park, right? I hope so.

I don’t want to think about those darn aneurysms again until I have to. So you just listen to me little voice…this has nothing to do with you and those pesky brain aneurysms. Silence!

The Coiling (Part 2)

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I realized Monday evening (two days before the coiling) that I was more nervous about this procedure than I was expecting to be. Not sure why, but I was. Perhaps it was a foreshadowing of the events yet to come and the amount of time I had to wait to get into the darn operating room. Lots of delays and one of my poor sisters Dori, who was flying into Maine to be with me, had two flights delayed and missed seeing me before I went into the OR.

The coiling procedure itself went very well. Dr. Ecker was able to get five more coils into that remnant area on the original aneurysm that had ruptured in 2006. So I now have a total of 20 coils in that one annie. He said the stent that was implanted last month was very secure and he feels the coils will stay secure behind it.

We had planned all along to get some good 3D images of the original aneurysm and the other new smaller one for comparison during future checkups. So after the coiling procedure was completed, he inserted quite a large amount of contrast dye. More than normal I suppose.

As the dye was injected I had an “episode” where my pupils dilated and my blood pressure shot up to 280. I still don’t know what they did to correct the situation….and I’m not sure I want to know just yet, but it was a serious situation because they’re weren’t sure what caused it. I wasn’t aware I have had any issues with the contrast dye in the past and he was concerned I had had another rupture or bleed somewhere. I was immediately taken to get a CT scan for further review and it showed I did not have a bleed, but they were concerned what caused it.

Unfortunately, for my family, the scare it gave the Dr. created a scare with them. He came out to speak to them between the coiling and the CT scan, so he wasn’t sure I was okay just yet. Which scared my sister, sister-in-law and husband a great, great deal. I’m so sorry they had to go through that.

Apparently the Dr. was also concerned about getting me to come out of the anesthesia, but obviously they did. Because of the chaos that occurred at the end of the procedure, he decided to get me right to ICU and that he’d come back later and remove the sheath in my groin then. I was taken to ICU and apparently was quite chatty that first hour when Dori and Dave came in to see me. The only thing I remember is that my throat was killing me because of the breathing tube used during the procedure. I didn’t recall any of these conversations the next morning. LOL

At around 8:00 in the evening, Dr. Ecker stopped by SCU3 to remove the sheath in my groin that’s inserted to allow the micro catheter and coils to be entered smoothly into the artery up to the brain. I was given the option of having him insert the angio seal/plug into the puncture site in the artery (without any anesthesia) and only have to lay flat for 2 hours or having him simply apply pressure for 15 minutes to stop the bleeding, then I’d have to lay flat for 4 hours. Because I’ve had the angio seal/plug inserted once before without any anesthesia and it hurt like hell, I opted to have him apply pressure and have to lay flat for 4 hours….It wasn’t like I had anywhere to go. I was going to be in bed all night anyway. I’m sure he wasn’t happy with that decision, but he relented.

What I was NOT prepared for was how incredibly long that sheath is that he pulled out of the puncture site. 14 to 15″ long. I kid you not!! I said “holy crap” when the nurse showed it to me. We turned on American Idol on TV so that helped pass the 15 minutes. My groin was very sore for quite some time and I have a pretty horrific looking bruise beside the site for some reason.

I stayed in the SCU3 (or Special Care Unit) at Maine Medical Center overnight. I didn’t get any sleep and couldn’t eat much except ice cream and sherbet due to my throat. The nurse even crushed some Tylenol into the sherbet for me. That was brilliant!

We also learned after last month that I have issues with Morphine, so I was going to make sure we didn’t do any morphine this time. Amazingly, I truly didn’t need it. My head pain wasn’t so bad that I needed stronger meds. I had the two Tylenols in the evening and two more in the morning. I didn’t feel good, but thankfully I never got sick to my stomach this time and I truthfully feel it’s the morphine. They marked that I was allergic to it, so hopefully I won’t ever go through that again.

Despite the remarkable care and service in SCU3, I didn’t get any sleep during the night. I’ll just say it was a good 8-hour “rest”. I needed the sleep, but there was too much talking, bells, alarms and bustling in the ICU….as it should be. They do an amazing job. I was hooked up to all sorts of monitors and had the leg massage wraps on to keep the blood circulating in my calves to avoid any clotting. I was hooked up from head to toe so just laying on my back was about all I could do for many, many hours.

I was able to eat breakfast the next morning, so that was huge (compared to last time) and I was sitting up in a chair when Dave and Dori arrived giving them a huge surprise.

Dr. Ecker gave me the clear to go home the next day, but another neurologist wanted to make sure there was no neurological reason for my “episode” so they wanted to run an EEG before they released me. I was very tired, had a headache but was functioning as normally as I could at that point.

The EEG took about 20 minutes and they were able to do it right in my EEG-accessible room in ICU so I didn’t have to go anywhere,which was nice. They hooked up electrodes on my head and upper torso. No pain, just makes horrible mess out of your hair. My baseball hat went on immediately afterwards. Results of the EEG came back very quickly and all looked good. I was free to go as soon as the final papers were signed. That took HOURS for some reason, so I never got out of there until 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon. I had been dressed for several hours prior to that. I did get a good lunch though and I know it’s odd to have people released directly from ICU, but it was still a long, long wait. I was very, very tired and hurting at that point and knew we had another hour drive to get back home.

My sister-in-law Nancy offered her home to us so that I could spend some more time with my sister before she flew back home and we headed north. It was nice to spend some time with her and chat and I was grateful she came in for the surgery, even though she had a hell of a time getting to Maine. Nancy agreed to pick her up at the airport and take her back, so I’m also grateful to her for that.

It all worked out in the end. I was wiped out when I got home and the next day. A good day to lay on the couch and watch the royal wedding. I then decided I should remove the bandage from the groin incision and clean that up to avoid any infection or anything. I discovered a pretty horrific looking bruise there. That was new!

I’ll have a follow-up appointment with Dr. Ecker in June.