I’m always seeing survivors, not just brain aneurysm survivors, say they’re grateful for every day they’ve been given, or they wake up each day and feel that gratitude, and live their lives differently as a result of surviving. I have mentioned this before, but I guess I’m not one of those. That’s not to say I am NOT grateful, blessed, lucky, and fortunate to be alive when others aren’t so lucky, but I feel I have not honored that gift that I’ve been given properly. In fact, I can honestly say I have abused that gift. Have I taken better care of myself since my last report with the neurosurge ..read more

Yesterday, Dave and I spent the afternoon at the Brain Injury Resource Fair in Augusta, Maine. This annual event, sponsored by the Brain Injury Association of America – Maine chapter, was the first held since the pandemic. Our brain aneurysm group had a table along with many, many vendors from different areas of Maine and New England. The program director of the Maine chapter of the BIAA is headed by Sarah Gaffney who is a spark plug of encouragement and energy. As usual, she and her team did an amazing job with this event. Sarah’s advocacy is motivating and impressive. I was honored when she ..read more

I’ve been scheduled to have my follow-up angiogram in a couple of weeks. It’s to check that the stent (flow diverter) we placed in April is doing well. Then it dawned on me that it’s not only to check on the stent, but to also check to see if it is preventing more blood from getting into the aneurysm. One would hope that a stent placed inside of another stent would finally do the trick, but with this particular aneurysm, you just never know. It has been a thorn in my side, or a thorn in my brain for 16 years. Let the scanxiety begin ..read more

Yesterday was my 12th cerebral angiogram in 16 years. That’s a lot of images, a lot of stress, many procedures, successes, and even failures. Brain aneurysms don’t care what else is going on your life…they show up whether it’s snowing or not. It was snow that greeted Dave and I yesterday morning as we were up before the sun rose to hit the road to Portland, a 60 mile drive south. Thankfully, we drove out of the snow about a quarter of the way there as a driving rain greeted us at the door of Maine Medical Center. When multiple members of the hospital staff remember you from previous visits ove ..read more

Two weeks ago, I finally got a funky bump on my forehead checked out by a dermatologist. I’ve had it for about two years and it has slowly started to grow. Hearing the word “cancer” in any form during a doctor’s visit is shocking, especially when you think you just have a little skin mutation. I was quite surprised, and was unprepared for that initial diagnosis of the bump upon the first glance by the doctor. A quick biopsy was performed and a week later it was confirmed to be a basal cell carcinoma tumor – skin cancer. The good news is that, of the three types of skin cancer, this is THE most ..read more

Five years ago I wrote, what I contend, is one of my more poignant blog posts about all of THE STORIES I have heard about brain aneurysms. Stories from many different people from all walks of life and at very random times. We heard a new one last week. As my husband and I were in the pre-op area at the hospital waiting for his colonoscopy to begin, the anesthesiologist came in to speak to Dave prior to the procedure, which is normal. As Ron was talking he noticed the brain aneurysm survivor pin that was on my purse and Dave’s KAT-WALK bracelet and asked who was the survivor. We proceeded to s ..read more

Eight days after my brain stent placement, I’m doing very well. I went back to work on Tuesday and worked four full days. I did take two 15-minute breaks a day to step away from my computer to sit and close my eyes. It did help. Thankfully, I didn’t come back to an excess of projects that needed my immediate attention. There was just enough to test my eyes. And it was my eyes that felt it the most. After a couple days of headaches, those eased, but fatigue and eye strain weighed heavily on Friday. Based off previous non-emergency brain procedures, none of this is unexpected. I went to bed earl ..read more

I discovered last night that laughter can be exhausting for a brain 3-weeks out from receiving more metal. More to the point, laughter for 90-minutes straight is exhausting. But it was so worth it as we enjoyed a rollicking night of improv at the Waterville Opera House. Fans of the television show “Whose Line Is It Anyway” will recognize the touring show called “Whose Live Anyway?”, which includes many of the same performers seen on the TV show but performing live. They did NOT disappoint. Prior to the show we enjoyed a tasty dinner at a Greek restaurant down the stree ..read more