Hi Jasmine

I had my aneurysm clipped by Dr Mark Dexter at Westmead Private Hospital, and I will be completely honest - I think he is almost a god! He was absolutely fantastic, and although it was done in 2004, I saw him for a routine follow up last year, and he also treated my friend's mother - she had terminal brain cancer, so her outcome was not good, but once again, he was fantastic - caring, compassionate and incredibly talented - even the nurses love him (and that says a lot).

I was in hospital for nearly two weeks when I had my surgery - I live in Parkes (Central Western NSW) - five hours from the hospital, so they wanted to keep me there to make sure all was well. I also have a blood disorder that causes me to have low platelets and I have multiple sclerosis - so my risk of bleeding was higher, and recovery rate a little slower.

I am a TAFE teacher, teaching business, word processing, spreadsheets, database etc. I was lucky enough to be able to take six months off work - and I confess I REALLY needed it. Cognitively, I had lots of trouble at first with word finding, short-term memory, processing sequential data/tasks, sensory overload (lights, colours, movement, noise). I also found that the fatigue was crushing and debilitating - especially for the first six weeks or so.

BUT IT GOT A LITTLE BIT BETTER - EVERY DAY

And so did I. We all have our own experiences. I don't know how many of mine are attributable to the aneurysm surgery and how much belongs to my MS - although, I think if you check out other people's posts, my road is similar to many others.

Bear in mind, that when this surgery is done in a controlled environment, by expert doctors, it is very safe - the alternative does not even bear thinking about, so consider it an extraordinary gift to have found it and be able to take control.

Lots of people are able to return to a full workload after six weeks - I guess a lot depends on your age and general health. Dr Dexter told me 'not to rush back' to work. Things may have changed, but I was not allowed to drive for three months after my surgery. I guess you will find out about that when it is finalised.

Keep me posted, ask me anything you like and I will try to help. I assume they are talking about clipping rather than coiling??? Let me know.

Regards

Lyn