Category: Tests

Knowledge is Power

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I have developed gallstones in my gallbladder. Had my first attack a few weeks prior to the Christmas holiday. After watching my diet and making sure I didn’t over-do it with the fat content, I still had another attack. So, the decision to have my gallbladder removed was made and surgery is scheduled for the end of this month.

I had a meeting with my surgeon to discuss the particulars and give him my background. As we were sitting down with one of his associates, she informed us that her uncle had had a ruptured brain aneurysm. Luckily he survived but it gave quite a scare to them all.

He has 12 brothers and sisters and they ALL decided to have themselves checked out to see if they were at risk for aneurysms or possible HAD one. Luckily everyone was annie-free, but another brother found another medical issue that wouldn’t have been discovered had he not had the scan. Now, it’s something they can monitor and treat before it gets too bad that more serious medical procedures would be needed.

Dave and I were both THRILLED that her uncle’s entire family took it upon themselves to get checked. I’ve been unable to get my two older sisters to get scanned. Both are at high risk due to a sibling and two cousins having aneurysms and they’re also both smokers.

I know they’re scared and I know money is an issue as well. BUT the discovery of an unruptured aneurysm is much better than discovering it as it ruptures….I know….I have gone through both. The rupture did not allow me any options and could have not only caused death, but serious brain damage.

The discovery of another aneurysm DOES allow me to have the power to control it somewhat. I now know it’s there and I can work with my Dr. to monitor it and determine a course of action SHOULD it be needed. There’s alway the odds that nothing will have to be done, but at least I know it’s there and I know to get it looked at and monitor it. I don’t live my life in fear of a rupture because as we’re monitoring it, it hasn’t grown considerably and it may never grow, but at least I’M the one watching it and I’M the one who will determine, if the time comes, to have surgery to fix it.

Knowledge is power!! If you, or a loved one has had a ruptured brain aneurysm or has discovered an unruptured one, please get scanned. It could save your life.

Happy 5th Annie-Versary to Me!

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Open this entry to view my anniversary video.

5th Annie-Versary

Smoking and Aneurysms

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This is an interesting article pertaining to aneurysms and smoking.

Smoking, Family History Increase Risk of Stroke

By Rose Hoban, Durham, North Carolina

Every day people are stricken by stroke. There are two kinds of this brain injury: The first occurs when a blood clot blocks blood flow to the brain, denying oxygen to the brain cells. The other kind of stroke occurs when a person has a hemorrhage in the brain or the surrounding structures. Hemorrhagic strokes are devastating. Forty percent of people who experience one will die. Most surviving patients are left with significant disability.

Most hemorrhagic strokes are caused by aneurysms

Daniel Woo, a researcher at the University of Cincinnati, says most of these hemorrhagic strokes are caused by aneurysms. Woo explains an aneurysm is caused by a weakness in the wall of an artery. Under pressure, those aneurysms can expand like balloons, stretching the arterial wall. 

”And if that enlarges badly enough, it can also burst and cause a hemorrhage,” Woo says. 

Now Woo has done research that looks at the relationship between hemorrhagic strokes and smoking. He says researchers have known smoking is a risk factor for aneurysm formation.

“We also know that having a family member who had a history of aneurysm rupture was also a risk factor for aneurysm formation,” Woo says. 

Woo looked at several hundred people who had had ruptured aneurysms and compared them to people who did not have aneurysms. He found that people who smoked had double the risk for aneurysm. His analysis also found that those with a family history of aneurysm also had twice the risk of forming one. But people who had the family history and who smoked were six times more likely to have a hemorrhagic stroke. He says that means hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people are at much greater risk of having a hemorrhagic stroke due to a combination of genes and behavior.

”Twenty percent of the population [in the U.S.] smokes, and 1 percent of the population has an aneurysm in their head that they just don’t know about,” Woo says. “So the rates can be fairly high of people having this, but so we’re still talking about maybe 1 percent of the population, maybe one in 100 people.” 

Woo says it doesn’t sound large, but he maintains it’s still a significant percentage of the population. 

Woo says that studies have indicated that aneurysms form gradually over time. He proposes that something about smoking causes them to form more readily. 

Woo says one message from this research is clear: Quitting smoking almost immediately reduces the risk of rupturing an aneurysm.

His research is published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

What’s Next

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I’ve been too busy and tired to post again, but better late than never if anyone out there is still reading this.

I had my appointment with Dr. D’Angelo a couple of weeks ago. I had all my questions ready to go and written down and I even tasked Dave with taking notes because my hand writing is so horrible, I didn’t want to miss anything.

We no sooner go into the appointment, when the Dr. got a phone call and cut our appointment very short. He was on-call and there was an emergency, so I certainly don’t expect him to drop everything for me and I completely understand that, but after driving all the way down there, I did feel a tad slighted. Not his fault, but still very disappointing. I wasn’t able to ask any of my questions.

He did shed a little light on where Dr. Kwan is and that they’re searching for a replacement, but that going to Boston to have any serious procedure isn’t a bad thing. He claimed he DID remember me, but I doubt it. LOL He’s seen so many people since then I highly doubt he’d remember little ‘ol me.

I took all of my Angiogram, MRI and CT scans on disk with me, but he said he needed to see more recent images, so I was told he wanted to me to have an MRA. Which is an MRI, but with contrast. His office called a week later and this coming Tuesday I’ll be going down to Maine Med for my MRA.

However, when pre-registration and radiology called tonight, they said it was for an MRI, so I need to call the Dr’s office back tomorrow to make sure everyone is on the same page on what it supposed to be done.

I’m obviously hoping everything looks good, but I’m hoping I get another opportunity to speak to Dr. D’Angelo and ask those questions I’ve been wanting answers to. With no one treating me locally anymore for my neuro issues, I’m feeling a tad lost and abandoned. I had high hopes for this one appointment with him, only to be in his office less than 10 minutes. Again…I know that wasn’t his fault.

As the 2nd anniversary of my annie creeps up, again, I’m recalling this time of year in 2006 still. I wonder how many years this will go on? It’s odd.

I’m feeling relatively good, so I’m having good thoughts about the MRA/MRI. And I’m hoping they’ll let me know the results sooner rather than later so I don’t have to wait it out.