Bump where carotid tube was?

[ajc1991]

Hi everyone, I had my surgery on January 15th. Those who have had the surgery know about the tube they place into your carotid. I still have a bump leftover, it's medium sized and not hardened, more soft. It isn't leaking. I called my surgeons office about it since my doctor suggested it. I'm still awaiting their call back. Has anybody had this?

 

[epstns]

I haven't had any issues from the carotid line at surgery, but I still do have a small bump where the cath entered my femoral artery for the pre-surgical cath exam. At first I thought it was some residue from the dissolving plug that they used in the artery, but by now (4 years later) I would have expected it to totally dissolve. I can only guess that my "bump" is some residual scar tissue. Since it is covered by normal clothing, I don't worry. I hope yours reduces soon.

P.S. If Ross was still among us, I would never be able to make the comment about clothing covering the femoral artery entry point. We would have slipped down into a whole morning of back-and-forth over that one. . .

I miss you, old friend.

 

[river-wear]

YES! I had a bump where the line was for about 6-8 weeks after surgery. Over time it went away and now I don't even see a scar there. My skin is fair and very prone to scarring, so that's kind of amazing. Just give it time and it will heal. It's not red or sore, right?

When I was re-admitted I also got a PICC line in my upper arm. That gave me a lump too, but it also disappeared.

 

[ajc1991]

Thank you both for your replies!

@riverwear No, it is not red or sore or draining. I did go online and did a bit of research, said it can take 6-9 weeks for it to fully go down. Just wanted to make sure with my surgeons office.

Again, thank you

 

[knotguilty]

I still have a small bump there from 10/2012. Doesn't bother me though.

 

[tom in MO]

I never got a bump, but I was told to expect one and if it did come, it would be gone in a month or two.

 

[ajc1991]

I made an appointment with my surgeon's office for next Tuesday. The nurse practitioner wants to take a look.

 

[ajc1991]

I called the nurse practitioner and asked her if it'd be ok to come in today instead of next Tuesday. She let me come in today and she had a look at it. She felt it and said she thinks it's a form of an aneurysm where the vein gets ballooned up after they remove the carotid tube. She called my surgeon and my surgeon said he wanted an ultrasound of it to rule out anything serious.

The amazing people at UCLA got me an appointment with a carotid ultrasound tech within minutes after my appointment with the nurse practitioner. I got the scan done and the radiologist came in to look at the live scan. He said he believes it to be a pseudo aneurysm. He said my case is not serious and its up to my doctor what he would suggest I do with it.

He said there's two things that can be done:

1. Do nothing, but keep an eye on it to see if it changes.
2. To have an agent injected in it that clots the area around it, he says this actually helps the situation pretty well.

He said there's situations where surgery is required but that my situation wouldn'to be one of those that would require surgery. I get the official results tonight or tomorrow.

Doing some research, I see that some of them resolve themselves. We'll see...