Hello I’m Michelle, married to Mark, have 2 awesome adult (yikes) children, one grand baby and come from the Deep South of NZ – Gore. This time 2 years ago I found out I had a rather surprising cerebral aneurysm situated on the right side of my brain. My neurologist had sent for a MRI looking for MS, MND, Parkinson’s or any other number of neurological disorders. Quick background to this appointment was me constantly falling over, chronic migraines and all sorts of other weird things that my GP couldn’t put a finger on the cause of. Anyway after much discussion with a Dunedin based neurosurgeon it was decided to refer me to Mr. Boet and Dr. Andrew Laing interventional radiologist for a endovascular web coiling – surgical mesh inserted into aneurysm effectively filling its space. Surgery went according to plan and I was discharged 2 days later. Fast forward to last year and I underwent endovascular surgery again in Christchurch for routine maintenance.
The aneurysm has refilled slightly and it had been decided to insert a few coils to cut more blood filling its space. Not so successful as the aneurysm had changed more than anticipated and any coils could result in blood clots. 6 months ago I underwent a voluntary craniotomy and clipping of the aneurysm and so far so good! Recovery was rough with constant tiredness, nerve discomfort and a feeling of general malaise. For the past few months I have focused on getting my health back and not feeling sorry for myself. I was also diagnosed with another type of migraine that affects my balance issues called vestibular. So not only do I have the usual migraine to deal with I also have the vestibular migraines to still work on. I lost an aunt and an uncle to ruptured aneurysms which made me determined to have mine repaired and count my blessings I was able to.
