Well, damn....
My head/neck CT scan was FINALLY done (by Ochsner) yesterday afternoon. Memorial hospital’s vascular surgeon (Dr. Andrea Barker) is STILL refusing to address the issue of my persistent/recurrent right occipital headache, even though it occurred on 5.27.2023 with the iliac/celiac artery dissections & the splenic infarction. Full disclosure? She says she has no need to see me because my (chest) CTA was fine. Meanwhile, Ochsner suspects the cause of my constant head/neck pain is vascular and (as it occurred same time) is most likely related to the event that occurred on May 27th. Hence their willingness to do yesterday’s CTA of my neck and head.
Ochsner called me with my results at not quite 5pm
yesterday. Lots of medicalese but the gist of it is this:
I have a proximal extracranial right vertebral artery
dissection (VAD) with partially thrombosed dissection flap and mild native
luminal narrowing with an additional focal dissection of the distal
extracranial left internal carotid artery with vessel dilatation up to 7 mm.
Limited evaluation of the intracranial contents demonstrates no obvious major
vascular territory infarct or hemorrhage.
Recommendation is to get further evaluation with an MRI of
the brain. Ochsner is concerned with Memorial’s lack of willingness to explore
the issue any further and stated: “No other CT angiographic stigmata of
fibromuscular dysplasia appreciated but neurosurgery/vascular consultation
recommended to consider correlation for possible connective tissue disease,
fibromuscular dysplasia in this patient with multifocal spontaneous dissections
in the absence of trauma. Patient with reported recent spontaneous iliac artery
dissection diagnosed at outside facility (Memorial) that has not been fully
addressed as of this date.”
So, this weekend I am staying calm, and cool, and waiting to
see my Ochsner primary care on Monday to get an MRI scheduled and try to get in
ASAP with the only other vascular surgeon on the coast that does NOT use
Memorial Hospital.
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