Wiz-
Sorry to hear about Laura. I have a lot of autoimmune disease in my family and have Grave's disease myself. Hope you are hanging in there and have found support. ((hugs)).

Crwstar-
Sounds like our untreated aneursyms are near the same spot. Mine is in the sinus cavity, 11mm, right near where the opthalmic artery branches off the carotid artery.
Bell's Palsey will cause your face to suddenly droop on one side. People are often scared they had a stroke. Normally it clears completely up in 4-6 weeks. I still could raise my eyebrow on the affected side. That is unusual, so they ordered the MRA. Have they discussed coiling with you?

Wiz, You are right, loosing a family member touches many. Thank you for sharing your experience. I pray continued comfort and ease surrounds you and your family. Since my diagnosis, I have been a bit more isolated than I'd like. I have a wonderful community and am so use to going to church every Sunday and haven't been in a while. My symptoms for some reason have me unable to get out as much so thank you for sharing briefly your story.



Sarahin, They have not discussed coiling with me, my neurosurgeon said the only option was clipping.....hmmmm is coiling an option with an aneurysm in this area? I was surprised that he said it so empatically. My MRA report said exactly what yours did but didn't say it was in the sinus cavity.

I have had very slight drooping on the right side of my face but nothing to indicate Bell Palsey...hmm makes me think - the body is an amazing complex thing. Thank you also for responding....I was becoming discouraged with no responses....

All the best to you both.

Thanks to both of you. It has been 26 years so we're all dealing with it pretty well. I know my nieces and nephews still miss their Mom though. I'm just thankful that treatments for aneurysms have advanced so far. And one thing I really concentrate on is controlling my blood pressure. I'll never forget the part that played in my sister's illness.

Crwstar-
Mine is on the carotid artery right where the opthalmic branches off. I guess yours being off on the other artery must make a difference. I was also told that mine was in a bad spot, but coiling was the only option. My neurosurgeon prefers clipping because it's a more "permenent " solution, but said the area is too hard to get to from the "outside" without causing major damage. How large is your aneursym and how long have you had symptoms? My neurosurgeon seemed to think I may develop symptoms at any time. It's funny that you have drooping. They did the MRA because of mine and then found the aneursym, but say it's unrelated. I ended up having surgery on my eyelid on the affected side because it wouldn't close and I was told that was unrelated too. Yes, a craniotomy isn't fun. The surgery wasn't horrible, but recovery is slow. I also had complications and ended up with verbal learning deficit.

Wiz-
It smart you pay attention to your blood pressure with the family history. I fortunately don't have high blood pressure, thank goodness! I'm not about to take up weight lifting though. God bless.

my post went somewhere, i think I was on too long before hitting post.

Ok, here we go....

My aneurysm is 2.3 to 3 mm, small or a nub with a wide neck - I've done a lot of research on small unruptured aneurysms and became concerned because I started reading about some that have actually ruptured being that small and I seem to be on the cusp of rising blood pressure. I've had a headache for 7 months now but before that I would have what I called episodes of month long vertigo, nausea, dizziness. A while back I would wake up in the middle of the night with my neck stiff as a board and I never thought anything of it until now. I asked my doctor about it and she said I was sleeping funny but it was pretty extreme pain. When the headaches began, I was having bizarre fainting spells and bad short term memory - right now I have episodes of this but things are complicated because I was also diagnosed with a pituitary tumor in Feb of this year. The aneurysm was diagnosed in April. The tumor is 5 mm with some cysts that measure 2.5 mm. And I have one other undiagnosed thing on the right side of my head which is where the tumor is and where my eye droops. The drooping in the beginning only came at night when the headache was worse. A better description would be to say my eye lid is lazy...is that the same thing? One of the biggest things is the thunder clap or popping that sometime occurs and I feel altered afterwards and I have these deja vu episodes and my comprehension has over the years gotten worse. The symptom that's the strangest to me is how exhausted I become from simple activities. So far all my doctors have said that there's no connection between my headaches and any of the diagnosis but I spoke with and got the opinion of a doc on line and he suggested that dismissing these things completely may not be the best thing. I am going in to see a eye doctor next month and hopefully they can tell me why my vision has gotten blurrier and why there feels like there's a lot more pressure behind it. Boy aren't I chatty

hmmm, I am sorry to hear of the complications. What are you doing to be with this? I ask because my biggest fear I think has been something being wrong with my brain and here it is. I've had to really come to terms with it all and its still early in my process.

Unfortunately, I can't remember the rest of what I wrote - I think it was pretty witty though....we'll never know - but that's why I stopped typing before - I was forgetting what I was going to say so I'm going to sign off for now. All the best - I'm sure I'll have more questions...

I am hopeful that more people will join in the conversation.

chao for now

Just wanted to let you know there is such a thing as a neuro-opthalmogist. I live in Indianapolis and there are only two of them here. So not a lot of them around. It might be worth it to check on your insurance company's web sight to see if they have one they cover under your policy. Your symptoms seem pretty hard to write off as unrelated. I was told the problems I've had post-op weren't due to my surgery, but I finally asked for neuropsychological testing. My evaulation showed I have a learning deficit now. Knowing for sure doesn't make it go away, but at least it is clear I have not just become neurotic. I'm guessing you know what I mean. Well, excuse my venting. Best of luck to yah finding some answers.

No problem, vent away. The good news is I am going in to see a ophthalmologist next month and will get the referral to a neuro-ophthalmologist next. I agree my symptoms must be related to whats going on - hopefully, I will get a doctor who will really listen.

Take care