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Tower of Piza
29 June 2001
I am a 49 year old female in basically very good health...until...
I was diagnosed in February of 2000 with a descending thoracic aortic aneurysm. I had been having discomfort in my upper left back area for 5 years and had been complaining about it to my general doctor for 5 years when he finally took X-rays to see if there was scarring due to the inflammation. After the X-rays the results were that something was going on with my aorta. I'm like what? What is going on! So to ease my mind he sent me over for a cat scan which showed I had a descending thoracic aortic aneurysm that measured 5.2cm.
My general doctor told me to take an aspirin a day and two Vitamin E tablets twice a day and come back to see him in 6 months. I thought "no way" and did some searching for a specialist. My first visit with a specialist was a few weeks later. This guy was a cardiac surgeon and he advised me to have surgery as soon as possible! I was astounded to say the least! I was lucky to have a girlfriend who's brother-in-law was a cardiac surgeon and he told me that what I really needed to look in to was the stent procedure that was being done and gave me the name of a doctor at Stanford who was doing the stent. He also said the last thing I wanted to do was to have the surgery as it vas very invasive and very difficult to recover from. He also took my CT scan for the Stanford doctor to look at then next time they were to see each other and the Stanford doctor felt that I was the perfect candidate for the stent, but at this time he wasn't too worried about doing the repair. He wanted to monitor the aneurysm and see what it was up to.
After my second CT scan 3 months after the first one and no change to the size, we all took a sigh of relief. I then had another CT scan 6 months following that and lo and behold the dang thing had grown to 6.2cm. I contacted my friends brother-in-law who promised to contact the Stanford doctor but after not hearing from him for several weeks I decided I'd better look into the surgery to repair this thing. I then made an appointment with a vascular surgeon that had performed several surgeries on my mother. He also recommended the stent and also recommended that if I indeed needed the surgery to go to Stanford to have it done. He said he performed the surgery - probably at a rate of one per month, but that he felt the Stanford doctor did them on a much more regular basis and that is where I needed to go.
So the vascular surgeon contacted the Stanford doctor (these doctors all knew each other)! and after a battle with my insurance company, the vascular surgeon finally convinced the insurance company that the best place for me to go was to Stanford. The insurance company agreed to let me have the surgery done at Stanford, but because the stent was experimental, they would not pay to have that done. I arrived at Stanford January 7th, 2001 for work-ups on the 8th. I was already penciled in for February 13th for the surgery, but he had some tests he wanted done prior to that at his local hospital (University of Stanford). After the tests were completed he informed me that my aorta was too small for the stent but that he would perform the surgery on the date that I was already scheduled for. (Approximately 1 month away.) I asked him if it could wait that long and he said "no problem." Well, there was a problem and I am very lucky to be alive to talk about it.
On January 25th I was with some girlfriends with the plans of having a margarita party. Just before I was to push the button on the blender I felt something weird going on in my chest. I told my girlfriend and she immediately called 911. I was having a hard time breathing and my heart was pushing against my ribs to where my rib cage raised with every beat of my heart. I was rushed to the local hospital where they contacted the vascular surgeon I had seen in Seattle as well as the doctor at Stanford. It was a small town hospital and he knew that what I had going on was WAY out of that hospitals league. Luckily I was alert and was able to tell the emergency room doctor exactly what I had. I was then sent by helicopter to Seattle where the vascular surgeon was awaiting my arrival. He told me that the Stanford doctor wanted to send a jet for me but that he felt I would not be able to make it 20 miles much less the flight from Seattle to Stanford.
My family was all there at the hospital as well as my fiancé. The brief that they all got before I went in to surgery did not leave them feeling very good. They were told that there was a 30% chance of paralysis as well as a 15% chance of death. They had no idea what would happen once they got inside, but that I had 2 things going in my favor. One that I was relatively young (now 50) and I was thin. The surgery lasted 2 ½ hours before the doctor finally reappeared. It was now 2:30 in the morning and he told everybody to go home that nothing would be known until I woke up and could see at that time if my toes could wiggle. The closing team was putting me back together at that time and he would call if there was a problem during the night. My family said the doctor was amazed when he came out the first time and it was almost midnight to find 10 people sitting in the waiting room!
When I woke up the next day the first thing I was interested in was my toes. There was someone there telling me to wiggle them and I can vaguely remember being so happy that those toes could wiggle! I was certainly lucky to say the least.
Anyway, if anyone is facing this type of surgery and would like my personal trials and tribulations associated with it, please feel free to contact me.
Update: 15 August 2005
It's amazing how quickly time passes. It's been over 4 years now since my aneurysm ruptured, or I've now been told it is called a 'contained' rupture. The surgeon at the Virginia Mason in Seattle told me that when my aneurysm ruptured, it was contained in the outer layer of the aorta. He said the aorta has 3 layers and that the 3rd layer held, dropped down into my abdomen, and that it contained 2 quarts of blood! Boy, are our bodies ever amazing. I really shouldn't be here telling you all of this! It must have been my lucky day.
I've actually been feeling great. Other than discomfort associated with the incision itself, and discomfort by my left shoulder blade, I really can't complain. I didn't tell you in my first narrative that the incision for a thoracic aneurysm is to lay you on your side and basically cut you in half! They had to put in a rib spreader, and that was the cause of 2 breaks in one rib. To this day, I still am on my heating pad by 8pm and stay that way until I head for bed!
For the past 4 years I've not been able to comfortably wear a bra as the incision is right on the bra line. I finally made an appointment to see a plastic surgeon. He requested to my insurance company to do some repair work, and they have agreed. What will be done is either reopen the original incision and free up the nerve endings or a breast lift. I will find out more next week. I'm thinking that if anyone cuts on me again, it will be to make me look better, not just feel better!
It is amazing how much knowledge I have gained by just being a part of the 'family.' I'm so glad that we have this site. There are several people that I contact on a regular basis and this would not have been possible if it hadn't been for the contributions of the entire family.
Discussion, comments, or questions: Pamela DeGolie Smith
© Copyright 2001 Pamela DeGolier
Smith
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