The Psuedo Aneurysm

Unfortunately, we ended up back in the ICU. Mom’s back pain had continued to get worse and worse despite the pain management so the doctors made the call to bring her in. We had to wait in the ER for a while as they ran tests and for a room in the ICU to open up. We got a good laugh when I ate it while trying to pop a wheeling in her wheelchair. I definitely did not break the wheelchair…

After she got to her ICU room they did some scans with contrast and they found a pocket of fluid on the t9 & t10. It was actually pretty crazy, the first scan they did of her chest they saw nothing, then right after they did a scan of her abdomen and the radiologist noticed the pocket in her back that had formed from the first round of contrast.

They took her down to the Interventional Radiologists to drain, clean up, and embolize the leak. When they were in surgery they found that the pseudoaneurysm was actually in her intercostal artery - aka a very bad place, and the size of a GOLF BALL. No wonder her back hurt so much.

She felt immediately better after and was released the next day. Her back has improved so so so much! Still sore but thankfully not nearly as bad as it was.