We had a follow up visit yesterday with Dr. Iancu (the neuro-radiology surgeon who operated on Judy last Tuesday).    They were very disappointed that the procedure they attempted did not work;  once they were in it became obvious that this was not the best resolution for treatment of her aneurism.

The issue was that it was irregular in shape (elongated as opposed to domed), a wider neck versus an narrow neck and also at the end of the aneurism they found another ‘bubble’ that weakened the walls of the aneurism even more.   This coupled with Judy’s past history of a ruptured aneurism (and family history) ruled out the option of do nothing.   The only option now is surgery and clipping.

Dr. Sinclair will look after this surgery and having met with him again yesterday, he is very confident that this can be done successfully with minimal risk.   He also instilled that confidence in Judy and I that this was the right thing to do and now was the right time to do it.    It will be quite a bit more invasive this time now that the endovascular option is out.    An incision just behind the hairline from the ear to the temple will allow them to enter the area by removing a piece of the skull and accessing the  aneurism for clipping.   This surgery will take about 7 hours and a bit longer hospital stay is expected.    The anticipated recovery time once home will be 4-6 weeks.

The issue becomes timing.   Dr. Sinclair wants to do this sooner than later (because of the risk factors).   He is targeting mid July and no later than late July.    He needs to put a minimum of 14 days between the next surgery and when Judy stopped the Plavix (blood thinner from last surgery) as well he wants Judy to be closer to 100% of herself and not be in a recovery mode from the last surgery in order to make for a better, quicker and stronger recovery next time.    That is where mid July dates come into play.

We are feeling good about this.   Next steps are defined, very confident with Dr. Sinclair and lots of support from family and friends.   We will advise when we have a specific surgery date.