This Monday just gone I had an MRI at 8.30 am to check out a not terrible pain I'd had on the left side of my head as a result, so I thought, of milldly tweaking my neck. And by the time I got my appoint for the MRI it had pretty much gone.
Four hourse later I got a phone call from my physician telling me I had a large cerebral aneurysm! I went into shock and then I got scared. My doctor began trying to get me an appointment with a neurologist in Seattle, while at the same time suggesting I might want to go over and go into Emergency. There had been no symptoms except the above mentioned pain. I decided I to wait until the next morning, to try to process this. I didn't sleep well. I kept on wondering about this potential time bomb ticking in my head.
I was still waiting to hear if I had an appointment the next day but decided to go. Id I had no appointment I was going to go into the Emergency room, MRI scan disc and written report in hand. A friend drove me to the Ferry, we walked on, sailed across to Seattle (all of this took almost two hours). By now I knew the name of the neurologist and the hospital but not exactly where he was. There was poor cell phone reception and I couldn't get through. Susan, my good friend who was supporting me through this, found a woman on the Ferry with a laptop and asked her to google Dr. Newell and we got the address. Swedish Medical Center, Cherry Hill Campus, Seattle. Once we docked, into a cab we went.
I was hand carrying the MRI disc, but the written report had been faxed ahead of me. It was the written report that had made them make time for me. They fitted me into the schedule at 1 pm. Then but they couldn't read the MRI disc.
I saw Dr. Newell who said the good news was that this aneurysm was not placed where it would bleed into my brain should it rupture. The other good news was that it also was not the "clotted" kind that is the rupturing kind. But it's huge, about an inch and a half round. Chubby bugger, full of blood but with a very thick derma (skin) that will not rupture if nothing changes. I began to feel a little better. The not so good thing is that it's behind my eye and very, very close to optic nerves that, if it grows, could affect my vision.
I had a CT scan then, with the dye job (and that's a whole other story) and once Dr. Newell had his good look into my brain it confirmed his diagnosis. His treatment? Do nothing. Monitor it, coming back in a year to another MRI. Monitor myself and any changes in my vision or pain on that side. At my age, if it's going to grow it will do so very slowly. Dr. Newell also said I had probably had it for years!
I've dodged a bullet. I am so very, very lucky that a) I have a physician who insisted I have an MRI and b) this baby is situated where it is and is the kind of it is. And that I have insurance. Oddly, it is not related to the head pain that caused me to go to the doctor in the first place. Fate stepped in it seems. I have always felt I had a charmed life and I now I'm sure of it.
Aside from the death of a loved one, without a doubt the most stressful 30 hours of my life.
I can't tell you how lucky I feel to be alive.
jazmynsmom
mawheel
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