Balloon Angio Test

Me again... finally!

Whew... what a long day. We arrived at the hospital at 7:00am, and Jim didn't go in for his balloon angiogram until almost 4:00pm. Here's my Jimmy before his big test. Can you see how patient he looks? It was a very long day that turned out to be very disappointing.

We were so hopeful that things would be a little easier this time around, but no such luck. Jimmy failed his balloon angiogram pretty much right away. The doctor said that he flailed around for a couple of seconds and then went comatose immediately. Therefore, all options of clipping or coiling have flown out the window.

Dr. Fiorella came out and got me right away to go to his office. Fortunately, Michael had just arrived, so he was able to be part of the discussion. He showed us a "pipeline", which is a new device that is basically a mesh stent. It is being used on a trial basis and is awaiting approval by the FDA in a couple more years. He has been having some remarkable results and thinks Jim might be a candidate for early usage. It's a very long and complicated story, but I'm thinking that maybe this was God's plan all along. This would allow Jim to be one for the record books, and you all know how much he would hate that (ha-ha)! We'll never be able to shut him up!

Anyway, I digress. Here is how the plans have changed. Jim is still scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning at 7:30am. They have canned the bypass and clip idea and now plan to manually remove part of the thrombosis to relieve some of the pressure from his brain stem. This will, hopefully, alleviate some of his symptoms and allow him to feel better once he recovers. They will be entering from the right side of his head, below his ear, and work their way around his cranium to access the aneurysm. This is pretty risky, which is the reason that they were trying to avoid going this route, but if successful, it will have the quickest positive results. Stroke and paralysis are the greatest risks, but Dr. Spetzler will be as careful as he can and remove only as much as he feels is 'safe'. I'm assuming that his recovery will take quite awhile again as it is open surgery, so I'll probably still be here for some time.

There is a patient who is fairly similar to Jim. He is having the experimental pipeline put in on Monday, so if he does well, then we will start the process of getting approval for Jim to have the same. The great results from this pipeline have been that the thrombosis has disappeared for these patients in a period of a few weeks to six months. There are no long term results as yet, but we have to go with it, if it becomes available to us. If this patient on Monday doesn't do well, then we will just have to settle for what Dr. Spetzler is able to remove manually and hope that it doesn't get worse again too fast. Jim's strikes against him are that his basilar artery is too large for the pipeline in some places, so Dr. Fiorella will only be able to do a portion of it. Also, what he plans to do is quite a bit longer than he has done before, and Jim has lots of bends and curves for him to maneuver through. Then there is the partial clip that is already installed to deal with. Fortunately, the patient who is having the procedure on Monday also has a partial clip, so we will see if there is a problem with the clip pinching the pipeline or not. In other words, no piece of cake. But once again, we have the utmost faith in the expertise of the doctors that we are working with. The approval process could take weeks to months to obtain, and we might not get approval if this patient doesn't have good results next Monday, so we all need to add this gentleman to our prayers. The good thing is that we should know how this patient fares before we leave to go back home. Then I can plan another trip to come back as soon as we get our approval!

Are you all confused yet? My head is totally spinning! Jim and I were both so hoping for a straight forward process, and now we've got this to deal with. I'm very scared as there is so much still based on speculation, but I am so glad that Dr. Spetzler is going to go ahead and attempt to make Jimmy feel better -- if only until we take the next step in our journey.

It was very hard to leave Jim tonight. He was pretty groggy and already complaining about his catheter. I'm sure I haven't heard the end of that yet! He didn't get to eat all day and probably won't get to have anything tomorrow either. We tried to let him have a sip of diet coke (his request) after his test, but it made him vomit, so they took it away -- poor baby! He didn't get settled in his room until after 9:00pm, and they were getting ready to take him for an MRI before tucking him in for the night. Rick and Jenna are on their way to the hotel as I write this, so they will get to see him in the morning before surgery. We need to be there by 6:00am!

Please don't give up hope, and continue to pray for Jim -- he needs it more than ever! The surgery will last at least 5-6 hours, but that is what they told me last time, and it went for 10. I'm going to have to gear up for another very long day and very little sleep, so please send a prayer my way too. I am so glad to have my children with me for the weekend. Thank you all for your love and support, and I apologize for not keeping up on the phone calls ... I'm a little busy right now, but I still appreciate the love and interest from all of you. Let's hope for a successful day tomorrow. God bless all of us, and keep the faith!

Love, Krissy