Posted by Nancy N. on October 11, 2003 at 13:13:18:
In Reply to: Wonderful! posted by Shari on October 09, 2003 at 16:20:19:
Shari,
I know your doctor said that the burr hole surgery was for you but thats what they told my daughter too until we got a second opinion. My understanding is they mostly do this on children that have not had many or any strokes or strokes that have left not much damage.Children usually can afford to wait the three to six months to see if the surgery works and you are in jeopardy of strokes while thats happening. Adults especially with alot of symptoms like yourself need the instant blood flow. We were told the same thing at HUP that she had to have the burr hole surgery and come to find out through second opinions she did not have to have that, that the bypass surgery was no more risky and much less invasive they said its almost like a "minor" brain surgery not to make light of it because your only using the temporal arteries on the side of your head, not cutting your skull open. My daughter and others were in I.C.U. for only 24 hours and others without previous strokes were released from the hospital in about 3 days. It's much less invasive. Please get other opinions Dr. Steinberg will give an opinion even if you don,t go to him. Dr. Scott does most of the burr hole surgery because he does mostly children. I,m sure he would do and adult surgery if you wanted him to, he is a very good surgeon, you need to get moving though time is not on your side with those symptoms. Even if you get more information on the bypass surgery and decide to choose it if you express this is really your choice of surgery I'm sure Dr. Scott would do it. I,m not trying to jam the bypass surgery down your throat but you need other opinions more than 2 and I want you to keep your options open because what one person says isn't necesssarily what is right for you.