Celiac Artery Aneurysm

I too have one of these, with mine a little bigger, along with some other complications. I feel your concern as I also had to wait for what direction they were going to take. The internet is a great place for information, but can also lead you down a rabbit hole. Trust me, I’ve been there. I try not to stress/worry about it to much. Make sure to be your best advocate. I wish you the best.

I’m not sure but now that my husband has one we are going right to a vascular doctor/surgeon.

I had an acute bilateral pulmonary emboli on Sept 30th of this year. There fore they did an CT scan and by incident found my Celiac Artery Aneurysm. It is only 1.2 cm some days I am not sure if I have to be more worried about my blood clots or my aneurysm.
I just noticed that my blood pressure is getting high (150/105). I hope that it is not doing anything to that aneurysm!

Very very rare your condition, according to my researh.
Your aneurysm is only 1.2 cm, tiny, and does not normally become considered large and dangerous until 5 cm. Which might take 1-5 year or more, depends on many factors.
How fast it grows depend on lifestyle, diet, smoking, soft drink acid, and more.

Blood clot I would be more concerned about. Has your doctor prescribed blood thinning medicine?
What else your doctor say?

I had evar and AAA abdominal aorta aneurysm surgeries last year, and after that also blood clot.
It comes suddenly, and the pain is beyond anything you ever felt in your life. Rush to hospital for emergency surgery, IF one get there fast enough, and depends where the clot is located.

Your doctor is your best source for educated opinion.

I have a 13mm Celiac Artery Aneurysm too. Got real scared when told. After seeing expensive people come to find out they knew I had it for 7 years and never told me!? Glad the VA paid for this! Said it is the same size still and will CT it every 1-2 years. At 71 I have a new problem. Reason they found this was looking for another problem. All these years I find out I also have AFIB and now on Blood Thinners and a heart regulating pill. Only been a few days now. Had Type A FLU and bad AFIB at the same time so now they know my real problem to treat. Took 10 years for them to catch this! 8 hours in the ER and they slowed it down. But at least now they can't say I am faking my problems it happened in front of them.

I just came back from my cardiovascular surgeon and he said my torn aneurysm is “not that bad” A Celiac artery aneurysm dissection. First he seemed annoyed because my appointment was scheduled for March. 2 months from now. The aneurysm is at 4 cm by the way.

And he was forced to take me today January 4 because my nurse gave him a piece of her mind. He poo-pood the first nurse and said “I’ll see him in March.” The second nurse, who has no flies on her demanded that he see me today.

He simply said “No change that would require an operation today, see you in a year” When he realized that I knew I had a tear he still said “ it’s been like that since last year”. I said
“since I have a small tear, could it burst or just break open more and now it’s an emergency right?” He told me “ it could but we have ways of treating that”

Now I’m playing Russian roulette. Do I wait until there’s an emergency or do I do something about it now “well, it could leak or burst” but he insists that I see him in a year.

See, on December 27 I was rushed to an emergency room for severe abdominal pain. Eventually they gave me a shot of morphine and did a regular CT scan as part of my treatment. The scan was concerning to the ER doctor as she said that it showed a tear on my celiac artery aneurysm.

She said she would send the results to a hospital specialist. She comes back and said “we are sending you to another hospital (a trauma hospital) you need emergency surgery “.

I said ok and off I went in an ambulance that looked more like an ER on wheels.
Once I got to the second hospital it was now the 28 of December and I was wheeled into triage and I bi-passed other people who were there for sniffles or drunk. It was packed and I was in pain again since the morphine wore off.

Eventually a cardiovascular surgeon came up and we had a discussion (No other CT scan) and he said that I was “going to have to come back to the hospital but because it isn’t bleeding (yet), it would be safe for me to be discharged and see my own cardiovascular surgeon asap”.

Once discharged and I went to my own surgeon he first said “oh hospitals always do that” “Say you need to see him asap.”
(Refer someone? Of course, nothing odd about that). I live in an assisted living facility and it took 2 calls from different nurses to get him to cave. Now he’s telling me “it’s fine but it could burst”.

Should I get a second opinion without him getting upset? Did I mention that my blood is thin due to my mechanical aortic valve replacement in 2015? I also am prone to A-Fib. I am on Coumadin and if my blood gets too thin, as it has in the past wich resulted in an ER visit, is it possible that this adds another dimension to my problems?

It had been a low lately so clots could come into play. Right now I should be between 1.0 and 2.0 but today’s labs came back as “out of range “ it was now high at 4.5 witch is too high and puts me at risk of bleeding! What should I do?

I have a torn Celiac artery aneurysm and am prone to a-fib and blood issues and high blood pressure. Am I an accident waiting to happen?

The information you gave is wrong. Nonruptured Celiac artery aneurysms are operated on when they reach 2.0 cm — much much smaller than the 5.0 cm size you incorrectly described (according to National protocols established by vascular surgeons).

So you’re saying that my 3cm celiac torn aneurysm that measured at 3cm a year ago should have been repaired already?
This does seem to make sense because last year it was at 3cm and nothing about the fact that it was torn was mentioned then. This summer I had to go to the ER for Coumadin poisoning and they took a cat scan and found the torn aneurysm and that hospital said they were going to have to transfer me to a trauma hospital for emergency surgery!

I asked why and the cardiovascular surgeon told me about my aneurysm so they shipped me off to the trauma hospital and when I got there their cardiovascular surgeon said that he too seen it but said “it’s not bleeding at this time so we feel you can safely be discharged. But you’ll have to come back at another time to get it repaired and said that I should see my own cardiovascular surgeon ASAP so I called to make an appointment with him and he said he wouldn’t see me unless the hospital said it was an emergency!

He was clearly annoyed and rushed to get to his other patients who had made appointment.

I said the hospital said to see you ASAP. He said that “all hospitals say that “
According to him the radiologist took a sonogram of the area and didn’t see anything. What? 2 cardiovascular surgeons seen it and he’s saying he didn’t see it. I was diagnosed by this surgeon for 2 years for the aneurysm and now he’s saying he didn’t see it?
What about those 2 other years? He said I had a 3 cm the last time I seen him a year ago. I asked him if it could burst and he said that it could “but we have ways to deal with that “
Do I have to wait until it bursts? Seeing that a burst aneurysm is usually fatal that wouldn’t give me much time between the burst and the hospital ER.
Then he started to dash for the exam room door and said “see you next year!” He didn’t answer my questions except for one. Now I’m walking around not knowing if I could die that day.
I forgot to ask him about the size of the aneurysm and the size of the tear.
Maybe it’s nothing but I would like to know the size.

See photo. My vascular surgeon told me 2.0cm is the standard set by the vascular surgery community.

And that 2.0cm standard is for nonruptured celiac artery aneurysms— the recommended standard is that ruptured ones of any size are to be surgically repaired