Question
I am new to this site. Over nine years ago my husband had a severe stroke.. took care of him for 6 years 24/7.. had to place him in nursing home where he has been for 3 years, he is now 68. Discovered a bulge on his abdomen a week ago.. had them do an ultra sound and they discovered an anurism. Family history of aortic anurisms and this one is at the dilitation of the distal aorta above the bifercation and below the adrenals w/ a max diameter of 4 centemeters. I donot believe he will be a candidate for surgery because of his other health situations. I would really appreciate any info on this and is this a life threatening situation. His father and several uncles passed from these types of anurisms.. but that was many years ago and I believe they have made advances in this area. Thank you for any feed back.
Answer
So sorry about what you and your hubby have had to deal with.while i have some pretty good knowledge on brain aneurysms,the old triple A is much more over my head,but just from what i know about them from an EMS standpoint from working as a medic for many years is yes,they are indeed life threatening.unfortuently once they decide to "go' the chances of survival,even if they are in the hospital are pretty slim as the bleed out is pretty quick and can only be stopped with actual surgery.sorry.
who have you consulted with so far?the thing is,despite your hubbys health situation,this is one of those choosing the lessor of the two evils type of situations.while you can live withhaving this type of aneurysm,its the unpredictability of the bleed that is the scarey part.there usually are no actual warning signs of an impending bleed,it just goes when it pretty much wants to.if your hubby happens to have high BP,that makes this risk even higher.this is just strictly my opinion here so dont take it as anything more than that,but wieghing the possibility of having surgery against him just living with it,well you have a decision to make you know?do you take the risk of having a surgery and lessen the risk of having this thing just let go on him one day or do you not do anything because of his health and just monitor it and watch the bps and hope that it behaves itself.
there are other things to consider as well.seeing that he is living in a nursing home,does he have a DNR/DNI signed and on file?does HE want to actually DO anything here or is he pretty much okay with doing nothing and letting nature take its course?there are just alot of variables here that would go into any sort of decision whther to procede with some sort of intervention or just leave it alone.sorry i couldn't be of more help than this.i do have an aneurysm,but it is inside my brain sitting up against my brain stem.so like i said,i do have some knowledge of these little SOBs,just not in the same area as your hubby.
considering the family history here,have you any children who probably should be start being monitored more closely as they get older?this family history just makes any children at abit of a hiher risk and they should make sure that their primary docs are aware of that family historyso they can be the best of help to your children along the way.i hope things go the way you want them to here,really.i know you are not inthe best of situations right now and have some big things to discuss with your hubby.is he seeing a cardiologist or had any consults with like an interventional radiologist?i know thats who took care of my aneurysm with a coiling procedure.its still there,but coiling it made it less likely to actually rupture and saved me from having to go thru a crainiotomy and deep brain surgery.i don't know whether or not they actually coil triple As or not,or even can clip them.
you really DO need to speak with the right types of docs about this and find out any possible options he may have and go from there.just speak with his primary doc about what the next step should be here.also informing yourself with as much info right now is really the best thing for you and your hubby.it will help alot with making any actual decisions once you know the ins and outs about what you are actually dealing with.thats what i have done over the years with all my ongoing medical nightmares.information and knowledge are truely priceless when being in your particular situation.i wish you both luck and hope this can be treated without any major complications.please keep me posted on how things are going,K? take care Luge,FB
Answer
Thank you so much feelbad for your response. Today i will be meeting with his nurses and hopefully get more info from our family doctor. I believe they will recommend a vascular specialist.. not being able to put my husband out for any kind of surgery is the problem.
I know each individual case is different but I am concerned as to how fast this thing can grow and does it have to get larger before it bleeds out?
Thank you also for the info on the coil surgery you had.. I can only imagine all that you have gone through as well.
We have taken care of the DNR/ DNI.
He is very much like a child in so many ways and even tho he had a magnificant brain prior to the stroke alot of his reasoning and thinking processes have been taken from him.
Thank you again and any other info you can pass on will be greatly appreciated as I do my homework on this.
Answer
wow,it really must be sooo very difficult for you to see the man you have loved for so long in this type of condition,i can only imagine your pain.
i was just wondering tho,since your husband has a DNR/DNI on file,does HE want to even have this treated at all?what has he stated about his situation,or can you not actually rely on anything he says about his medical conditions?i am just not quite sure where your hubbys mentation status is at here.
the thing is,all aneurysms pretty much do as they please.tho mine was small compared to many others my NS had seen,he still wanted me to treat it and thus reduce the likelyhood of a bleed.he told me he has had some patients with the smaller aneurysms who did have a bleed and others who were considered 'giant' that have never bled at all.these could not be treated as they were actually in the brainstem itself.
i just don't really have enough overall knowledge of the triple As to really be able to tell you alot about them other than they can rupture at any time.being that his is in the area it is at and in the aorta,any bleed could concievably kill him and i would think that any specialist would want to definitely treat it by a possible clipping?not too sure if they treat the As the exact same way as the brain ones.the thing is,any big raise espescially sudden in his BPs could become a very emergent situation.one thing i havent been able to quite figure out with mine is that i am almost always HYPO tensive with my BPs.but on the other hand,because of this particular kidney disease i have called polycystic kidney disease?for some reason,people who are born with it also just naturally have weaker vessel walls.this is why the cavernoma(another form of vascular malformation) actually developed inside my spinal cord.i was told i was probably born with it there.
i really wish i could be of more help to you.i guess the best thing for you to do here wuld be to just do that research regarding what treatment options are availiable for his type of aneurysm then discuss them with his vascular doc,or whoever ends up treating this.like i mentioned before,because of where his is at i am not too sure just what type of specialist he would be treated by.the aneurysm is just in a very delicate and rather tricky area when it comes to any actual treatment.hopefully the doc you will be seeing will have some good ideas as what to do.then you gather up the family and discuss what needs to be done and what you all feel would be in your husbands best interest at this point in his life.the fact that he does have a DNR in place should indicate something to you ya know what i mean?does HE even want to go thru any sort of treatment at all or does he feel that he wants to leave it in gods hands.i really am so sorry that you are in this situation.i couldn't even imagine my hubby being where yours is currently at with his medical health conditions being what they are right now.my heart goes out to you and your family luge.hopefully this new doc will be able to ease your mind much better than i possibly can.good luck,hang in there and PLEASE keep me posted Luge,okay?marcia
