![\"FMRI_Brain_Scan\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/454\/2015\/06\/FMRI_Brain_Scan.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe call came within a day or two.<\/p>\n
The MRI\u2019s clanging and clanking and suffocating were still with me.<\/p>\n
But now, something new. Something perhaps not totally unexpected. Something that, apparently, was going to radically consume the next few months of my life.<\/p>\n
If not end it.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet over to the nearest emergency room right now. You have a brain aneurism. Let\u2019s not have you stroke out before you get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Words that you don\u2019t want to hear from your neurosurgeon.<\/p>\n
Duh.<\/p>\n
To paraphrase Dorothy Parker: \u201cWhat fresh hell is this?\u201d<\/p>\n
I would soon learn.<\/p>\n
Well, at least it explained the recent\u00a0horrific headaches that had\u00a0kept me hunched over at work for too many hours in my darkened office. Not to mention the double vision which had turned my driving into a nightmare \u2013 especially for my passengers!<\/p>\n
Despite my quite unmanly<\/em> protestations to the contrary, my wife \u2013 no stranger to my obstinance \u2013 made sure that I followed through.<\/p>\nI spent the next 24 hours in the emergency room (as there were no rooms to be had) being pricked and pumped and primed with multiple doses of Heparin to thin out my blood.<\/p>\n
The next morning\u00a0my neurosurgeon came by, as did the hospital\u2019s neurologist, the resident on call, and about five other\u00a0well-credentialed\u00a0healthcare providers\u00a0whose names I didn\u2019t catch.<\/p>\n
Nor did I really care to.<\/p>\n
Interestingly \u2013 perhaps I should say, confusingly<\/em> \u2013 the hospital\u2019s radiologist wasn\u2019t 100% convinced, at first, about my diagnosis after\u00a0another MRI\u00a0had been\u00a0conducted during the night.<\/p>\nBut soon enough he was convinced to act with the same extreme caution.<\/p>\n
So, the diagnosis was consistent.<\/p>\n
A brain aneurism had been located in a very difficult to reach spot.<\/p>\n
Options were then discussed.<\/p>\n
Brain surgery drilling down<\/em> from the top (to\u00a0somehow isolate and then repair the bulging vessel directly).<\/p>\nOr perhaps surgery reaching up<\/em> from the groin\u00a0to the brain (how the heck is that even possible?).<\/p>\nOr, for now, just kind of living with it and waiting things out as we keep a close eye on its growth since, at just about 4 mm,\u00a0I was informed,\u00a0the aneurism was relatively \u201csmall\u201d\u00a0\u2013 7 mm being the typical, minimum\u00a0size when surgery is\u00a0not easily ruled out.<\/p>\n
That last option, as appealing as it sounded,\u00a0meant that a stroke was possible at\u00a0any time. But \u2013 small comfort \u2013 probably not a fatal one.\u00a0 I would have to decide whether I could live with that, both literally and figuratively.<\/p>\n
Some quick Google research, and then some quick self-diagnosis, convinced me that, yes, it really was smallish. So it was realistically, scarily,\u00a0but possibly waitable<\/em>.<\/p>\nBefore any definitive\u00a0conclusions were reached, however, more tests were to\u00a0be\u00a0conducted.<\/p>\n
First up, some type of electric impulse test for myasthenia gravis<\/em> was suggested as a way to first rule that out as\u00a0a possible\u00a0cause of the double vision. That specialist reviewed the MRI results with me, and we discussed the location of the aneurism and the difficulty of reaching it surgically.<\/p>\nNow, if the MG test results were positive, we might then have to see whether there was a tumor on my thymus that would need to be removed.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when I finally began to realize that I was rapidly sinking into a healthcare\u00a0sinkhole from which I might never escape.<\/p>\n
The MG test came back inclusive \u2013 it couldn\u2019t be ruled in or out.<\/p>\n
Just great.<\/p>\n
Even more tests followed before any final decisions would be made.<\/p>\n
Another MRI. Then an MRA of the head and neck.<\/p>\n
Then something very weird happened.<\/p>\n
Another phone call from the neurosurgeon a couple of days later.<\/p>\n
About that aneurism? Well, it\u00a0doesn\u2019t appear on the new MRI scan.<\/p>\n
What?<\/p>\n
No, you apparently\u00a0don\u2019t have one. Perhaps it was just some unclear imagery\u00a0on the first one, resulting from some small movement during the scan.<\/p>\n
(Or perhaps, as I thought to myself, we shouldn\u2019t be so quick to rule out that some of my prayers had not been left unanswered.)<\/p>\n
But heck, I was just glad that we caught all this before I underwent massive head surgery and several months of recovery time!<\/p>\n
But\u00a0wait, there\u2019s more<\/em>.<\/p>\nThere\u2019s this other thing that we\u2019ve now found. Dissections in your carotid arteries. It was somewhat unusual, I was told, for both sides to be affected at the same time. But the good news is that no surgery would be necessary.<\/p>\n
At least not now.<\/p>\n
But\u00a0we\u2019ll monitor the situation for the next year.<\/p>\n
One year later here I am.<\/p>\n
Another MRI. Another MRA. I now await those results.<\/p>\n
If I ever wondered why our healthcare system\u00a0is so\u00a0expensive, I wonder no more.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a literal sinkhole. And it\u2019s so\u00a0damn hard to get out once you\u2019ve fallen in.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019m fortunate, so I\u2019m not really complaining.<\/p>\n
Perhaps I\u2019ll save that healthcare rant for another day . . .<\/p>\n
Peace<\/p>\n
Image Credit Here:<\/a>\u00a0DrOONeil<\/a>\u00a0via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The call came within a day or two. The MRI\u2019s clanging and clanking and suffocating were still with me. But now, something new. Something perhaps not totally unexpected. Something that, apparently, was going to radically consume the next few months of my life. If not end it. \u201cGet over to the nearest emergency room right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1976,"featured_media":2620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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