This is what hope looks like
- 11 hours ago
- 2 min read
As we posted previously, doctors presented us with two options for addressing the issues with Melissa's aorta:
Go home with supportive care and wait for her aorta to fail
Endure an incredibly risky and complex surgery to completely replace the aortic arch
Neither option is good, easy, or what we would like. Naturally, it has been a difficult, heart wrenching few days as we sat with that information. Words kind of fail to adequately describe it.
By yesterday, we had come to the difficult conclusion that going home with palliative care would be the the best option for Melissa. The risks of surgery and the fight needed to get through it would be too much.
Then later in the day, Melissa's vascular surgeon (the doctor who performed the procedure last September to use coils to embolize the pseudoaneurysm) stopped by. He wanted to present a different surgical option that he could perform. So he took a marker and drew the picture above to walk us through his thinking. It would involve the placement of a stent in the aorta and re-routing the carotid arteries. The risk is not as great as an open surgery to replace the aortic arch - but there is still risk, especially of stroke. Doing this surgery would stop blood from going to the pseudoaneurysm, potentially relieving pain and giving Melissa more time. The infection will still be there. The aorta is still damaged. But this is what hope looks like.
We took some time to consider the option and told the surgeon today that we would like him to go for it. There is no timeline yet as his schedule is very busy, but the wheels are in motion.
As always we are grateful for prayers and positive thoughts throughout this time!