My name is Sara Carlson. I am blessed to be a 3-time brain aneurysm survivor.
I was diagnosed with my first aneurysm at the age of 30, when my children were 9 and 10 months old. I was having a bad headache and since my doctor knew my family history she ordered an MRI right away. Turned out I had a small leak in an aneurysm on my left MCA. I had an amazing neurosurgeon that was able to clip that aneurysm and I suffered very minor deficiencies from the brain bleed. I went back to work as a CPA a few months later and was monitored each year for any new aneurysms.
4 years later on my annual scan, I had developed 2 more on my right side MCA. They planned to clip both of these as well. My neurosurgeon wasn’t able to clip them in the initial surgery, so i had a repeat craniotomy 3 weeks later. This time they were successful in clipping both aneurysms. I was recovering, but unfortunately I woke up on Christmas Eve with a fully swollen face again. My doctor said to get to the ER right away and sure enough, I had developed a Staph infection under my bone flap and was taken in for emergency surgery to remove the bone flap and rest of the infection. I was on a PICC line for 3 months while the infection fully cleared and went in after that for my Cranioplasty with my new polymer skull replacing the infected bone flap.
The last surgery was in April 2012. I am now fully recovered from my 4 Craniotomies and 1 Cranioplasty and have no deficits. I have recently developed a very small aneurysm that they will monitor, but its in a treatable area and would be a candidate for coiling if it does ever need to be treated. I am back working full time, teaching on the side at the college level and traveling with my kids in my free time. Couldn’t have made it through all that without the amazing neurosurgeon community and all the support and help from my family, friends and entire community!
