Hello! I'm a 58-year-old woman who had a non-aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage four months ago. I was one of the lucky ones--very few cognitive or motor skills affected. But my eyesight did get worse, and I still have trouble daily with mild fatigue, dizziness/nausea and headaches. I've had a chronic cough caused by sinus drainage for two decades, and that doesn't help! I've noticed a few weird mental lapses in conversation and in writing. I think I've done something when I really haven't. Sometimes, in the middle of a sentence, I have to stop for a second and think of the rest of the sentence before I say it. Early on, I kept forgetting to flush the toilet, for example. Lol!
I feel almost guilty that I've done so well when I read about some of you who have had bigger problems. They say my son's quick action to get me to the hospital and a prompt life-flight to an expert hospital probably not only saved my life, but made for a better outcome in terms of damage done and ongoing problems. But, because my problems are minimal, I also tend to mentally minimize the problems I do have.
I get frustrated when I can't make it through the day at work, and sometimes it's not clear that I'm beginning to have problems. I'm a contract writer/editor, and my clients can be very twitchy. If I can't respond quickly and well, they will sometimes just stop giving me assignments and find someone else. So, I tend to push myself.
I've only been working full-time for the last several weeks. It's tough for me to know where the limit is...I sometimes push to the point that I fall apart emotionally and have to lie down for a half a day and watch Netflix and sleep to recover. I think I know what I need to do to change that. It's just tough getting used to it. On the other hand, I have noticed I find myself sometimes using the stroke as an mental excuse to be lazy and NOT meet deadlines. Sigh.
Apparently, as my docs have said and many of you have confirmed, I don't have to worry about this type of stroke happening again. The chances are about the same as for anyone. But, I probably need to pay closer attention to what's going on with my body, so I can feel better.
They say stress wasn't a factor (or we can't know that it was), but I was working 16-hour days and had a month of travel right before the stroke, so it seems to make sense that it might have contributed to the cause, but who knows. There are some other things that could have been a factor, but not high blood pressure. Mine is naturally on the low side. I guess part of surviving this is accepting that we can't know everything about what happened and we can't be sure what we should do now to stay healthy.
Anyway, I just wanted to say it's very cool to have found this forum, and I'll be back.
Kindra