Celiac Artery Aneurysm: Anyone else with same illness?

So, I went to the vascular surgeon and he said that they wouldn't do any surgery until it reaches 2cm. Since mine is 1.8cm if they would still do surgery. He said not until it hits 2cm and that's protocol. (I'm 2mm short of surgery) He wants another scan in 6 months. I do have an appointment in a few weeks for an ultrasound and a doppler to check blood flow in my legs. To be honest, I want a second opinion. My insurance case manager called me to see how my appointment went and I told her that he wants to wait another 6 months. I told her that I wasn't comfortable with that. So, I asked my family doctor for a referral to the Mayo clinic. She agreed 100% with me and she asked that Mayo do a case evaluation on me. That way they can look at all the data and scans to see if I really need to wait. If I hear that Mayo clinic wants me to wait then I'll be ok waiting. I guess I need to hear if from more that one professional.

Oh so it was 3cm once and it grew to 4cm. Thank you. I was born in Canada and they use the metric system. I forgot about metric measurements once I became an American citizen. Also, I thought it had to reach 5 cm before we start talking about surgery. The other poster said his would be done when it reaches 2cm. I find that kind of low.
Thanks!

Hello @johnnyfive,

It is good that you are being proactive and searching for the best treatment/diagnosis possible. I'm glad that your doctor is proceeding with a referral to Mayo. I hope that goes well for you.

I'm wondering about the doppler for your legs. Are you having leg symptoms?

No leg symptoms, they are checking for blood flow. He told me one of the most common places for an aneurysm is behind the knee and since I already have one aneurysm then I probably have one or more of them. He also put me on a 20lb weight limitation.

@johnnyfive

It sounds like your doctor is being thorough. Has the doppler for the legs been scheduled yet?

Yes, the doppler and ultrasound are both scheduled the week of the 22nd this month. I'm not sure how long the referral to Mayo will take. I sent the request in last week and asked for a case evaluation. Will they just review my scan and call my doctor or call me to ask questions?

Hey All, Last week I was diagnosed with the celiac aneurysm at 1.0 cm with dissection. As many others here, been a very worrisome time. Trying to find a Vascular Surgeon in my network has been a challenge. My issue started with severe upper abdomen and mid back pain that was very painful and couldn't sleep because I couldn't lay on my back or side. They did CT scan and ended up finding the aneurism. I guess this is rare, but with the dissection with it, it is double rare, so as I am sure with many of you, its a scary feeling. While my size is only 1.0, and everything I have seen minimizes the severity of it, the dissection really adds to my concern. I will post next after I meet with a VS (Hopefully soon).

Hello @briandem and welcome to Mayo Connect. I can certainly understand your concern. I hope that you soon have an appointment with a vascular surgeon. Does your network offer you options for vascular surgeons?

I look forward to hearing from you again. Will you post as you have questions and concerns?

Thanks Teresa, yes they do, but when we called they said that they were not in our network, so feel the insurance company is touting doctors that may have at one time been in the network but are no longer. They are supposed to update every 6 days so I highly doubt that many left in the previous 6 days. My doctor's office is working up a referral and will find one for us that is in the network so hopefully will hear back soon.
As many others here have said, I feel like a ticking time bomb and while supposed to keep my blood pressure down, how is it possible when the anxiety is through the roof!

I have the same celiac aneurysm with a tear in it. It is currently at 3 cm. I am concerned because I went to a hospital emergency room for something not related with aneurysms.

Of course as usual the ER doctor ordered a CT scan with dye. He came back to my examination room and said “ we are going to transfer you to a trauma hospital for emergency surgery because you have a celiac aneurysm and it has a tear in it, It’s presently at
3 cm.”
So they shipped me to the trauma hospital and when I got there they already had the CT scan image. The cardiovascular surgeon acknowledged the aneurysm and said that “because it’s not bleeding, we feel you can be discharged today but you will need to come back later to get it taken care of “
The discharge instructions were that I see my own cardiovascular surgeon (I actually have one) ASAP.

The next day I meet with him and they did a sonogram and he came into the room and said that he didn’t see anything,” see you next year!” I said “wait a minute, could it burst?” He said “it could but we have ways to take care of that”

I thought about how quickly things could go bad if it burst and nobody is around. I was previously told that it would probably be fatal if not addressed quick enough.

For 2 years my cardiovascular surgeon acknowledged I had one and now he says that he didn’t see anything.
2 hospital cardiovascular surgeons saw it but my guy all of a sudden says that he didn’t see anything? And tells me to come back in a year??

If he didn’t see anything why is he acknowledging that it could burst. It’s a torn aneurysm for crying out loud!

He was clearly annoyed by my being in his office while he had patients that had earlier made appointments. He rushed out of the room and I got out to follow the arrows on the floor leading me to the (rude) secretary’s desk.

She’s the one that said “where’s your mask?” as soon as I walked into the lobby. I had forgotten to bring my mask that was required then.

She gave me an unfriendly stare and handed me a mask. (I always wear one for doctors visits as they were still required at that time and because I had had covid months ago and am now covid free). That was it, “see you next year “ why would he say that if he said he didn’t see anything? I don’t have any pain so does that mean I don’t have it? I also have another cardiovascular doctor. He’s a cardiologist and I don’t know if he deals with aneurysms.