So, I have decided to start a blog as a way to reflect on my recent life events and hopefully as a way to make myself see that I am actually moving forward. In order for any of this to make sense, I need to start from the beginning. Here goes!
So, in September of 2010, I was happily working, riding, and training for my first half marathon. I had finally gotten my dream work schedule in order to give me more riding and running days. I worked Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. So, my Tuesdays and Thursdays could be spent outside. Now, every year I have an MRA of my brain because cerebral aneurysms run in my family. I have been lucky and have always had normal scans, until 2010. My scan was taken in September and my doctor called to tell me that they needed a better look, so I needed to come back for a CT. Following that scan, I received a phone call asking me to leave our home in NC and head up to Maryland to meet with a neurovascular surgeon on Thursday Oct7th at 7:30AM. Not a great phone call!
So, my husband and I headed to Maryland after work on Wednesday night leaving my mom with the horses and Trevor. We were at the Neurosurgery desk around 7am on Thursday. We met with a surgeon who reviewed my recent scans with me. It turned out that I did have an aneurysm on my middle cerebral artery. It was small in size, only 4mm, but because of it's structure it was recommended that we take action to prevent it from rupture. Now, anyone who has been in this position will know that I was sitting there hoping to hear the surgeon say that we could do a coiling procedure rather than actually opening my skull to get in and correct it. Unfortunately, he believed it could not be coiled due to its shape, so craniotomy it is. He scheduled me for a cerebral angiogram for the following morning. I was devastated! As I sobbed in the waiting room, my husband called family and friends to relay the horrible news. Surgery was scheduled for Oct 27th.
The following morning we arrived for the cerebral angiogram. It was horrible! I was told that I would have medications that would make me comfortable and not remember much of the procedure-similar to what you receive for a colonoscopy. However, my medication was not strong enough, so I could feel the catheter running from my thigh all the way up to my head. It was a scary and painful feeling. I was sobbing and shaking from it all, and they had to literally hold me down on the table. Then, they started yelling at me that if I didn't stop sobbing and shaking, my femoral artery would not stop bleeding. Not exactly the comforting words I needed to hear. But, at least it was over!
The study from hell just confirmed that I did in fact have to undergo the full surgery, coiling was not an option. So, we returned home and tried to get back to life for a few weeks while we could. My husband was scheduled to deploy later that month, but luckily, because of the severity of my surgery, he was allowed to stay home and care for me. He did have to miss a trip of a life time that he had been invited to go on prior to deploying which I still feel badly about but as you read this, you will see as I have that I truly could not have survived this without him by my side.
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