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Nov. 5th, 2011 10:09 pmIt's been a couple of days since my roomie went in for her CT scan, but I've been busy/tired, so I'm just now getting around to updating y'all.
Things could be worse, but they're pretty bad. Randi's aneurysm is 2.5 cm, which is called "giant". It's so large that, when we asked our neurosurgeon if she'd done a lot of "these procedures" (meaning brain surgery), she started to say "Yes, of course", but then changed it and said instead, "No. None of us have! We very rarely see this!" It's likely Randi'll make it into training videos and a medical journal. All the surgeons are interested in it - Dr. Rickert said, "I don't want to make you self-conscious, but you were the subject of a conference this morning!" The good side of this is that Dr. Duke Samson (yes, that's really his name), who runs the neurosurgery clinic and is world-famous, will be supervising the surgery, and Dr. Rickert will probably have a large and top-notch team to help her.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Our options were pretty limited. We could "watch it", by which is meant that we could leave it alone, in which case there would have been a 1.25% chance/month, cumulative, that it would burst. Randi goes, "So at best I've got 4 years? No, let's hear the others." The usual option for aneurysms is to fill the "bubble" with platinum coils and put in a stent, but Dr. Rickert said that wasn't a good option for an aneurysm so large ("I don't want to put that much metal in your head.") The last option, and the only real one, is brain surgery.
So some time within the next couple of weeks, my poor roomie will be going in for brain surgery. Besides obesity, she has none of the conditions that might make surgery dangerous, so - setting aside the slight but ever-present chances of coma or death that come with every surgery - the worst that could happen is that she would have a stroke and lose the use of her left leg. The best will be that she'll be safe from the threat and get the vision back in her eye again.
Keep sending those good vibes and prayers, everyone!
Things could be worse, but they're pretty bad. Randi's aneurysm is 2.5 cm, which is called "giant". It's so large that, when we asked our neurosurgeon if she'd done a lot of "these procedures" (meaning brain surgery), she started to say "Yes, of course", but then changed it and said instead, "No. None of us have! We very rarely see this!" It's likely Randi'll make it into training videos and a medical journal. All the surgeons are interested in it - Dr. Rickert said, "I don't want to make you self-conscious, but you were the subject of a conference this morning!" The good side of this is that Dr. Duke Samson (yes, that's really his name), who runs the neurosurgery clinic and is world-famous, will be supervising the surgery, and Dr. Rickert will probably have a large and top-notch team to help her.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Our options were pretty limited. We could "watch it", by which is meant that we could leave it alone, in which case there would have been a 1.25% chance/month, cumulative, that it would burst. Randi goes, "So at best I've got 4 years? No, let's hear the others." The usual option for aneurysms is to fill the "bubble" with platinum coils and put in a stent, but Dr. Rickert said that wasn't a good option for an aneurysm so large ("I don't want to put that much metal in your head.") The last option, and the only real one, is brain surgery.
So some time within the next couple of weeks, my poor roomie will be going in for brain surgery. Besides obesity, she has none of the conditions that might make surgery dangerous, so - setting aside the slight but ever-present chances of coma or death that come with every surgery - the worst that could happen is that she would have a stroke and lose the use of her left leg. The best will be that she'll be safe from the threat and get the vision back in her eye again.
Keep sending those good vibes and prayers, everyone!