What were your symptoms in order??

[Chris G]

Welcome to the site and thanks for sharing. I am sending prayers for you. 

 

Chris

[Xmartz]

My situation was weird. Only symptom was vomiting about every half for four days straight. I was actually in the ER two days prior for it but there were so many others there for the same reason that they assumed I had the same bug that was going around. 

 

Two days later my husband came home from work to find me on the floor.

I was barely conscious and very altered/confused making no sense.

 

[MarkH]

1 Sudden stiff neck while out running - completely locked - with pain radiating through back of head and into forehead

 

2 Felt confused - body felt like it was shutting down and wanted to sit down but managed to walk two miles home

 

3 My wife took one look at me and drove me to A&E where I promptly vomited and was diagnosed with v high blood pressure

 

4 CT scan did not show any issues - given painkillers and discharged with suspected neck spasm

 

5 Vomited all night - relentless pain in neck and head and developed eye pain and aversion to TV/loud noises

 

6 Back to A&E next day - treated with anti-sickness medication which worked and painkillers which didn't and sent home

 

7 Day at home in agony - now getting severe lower backache whenever sitting or standing as well as ongoing neck pain, headache

 

8 Next day saw GP who consulted with A&E and prescribed stronger painkillers - didn't help

 

9 Next day pain worse than ever - saw an osteopath who took two minutes to confirm it was not musculoskeletal and wrote a letter to A&E suggesting an urgent MRI scan -  back at A&E had a second CT scan (contrast and non-contrast) which revealed a bleed and possible AVM - admitted to hospital and finally given painkillers which had some effect

 

10 Following day transferred to a hospital with specialist neurology department - still in a lot of pain

 

11 Day after admission had catheter angio which did not reveal any structural issues

 

12 Kept in for a week on nimodipine during which time blood pressure normalised and pain slowly started to improve

 

13 Had a further CT scan after seven days which reconfirmed no structural problems - diagnosed as NAPSAH

 

14 Now home (bleed plus 28 days) suffering from ongoing headaches and fatigue but v relieved about prognosis and thankful the intense pain has subsided!

 

14 This site is fantastic - it has been really helpful to read others' experiences and know I am not alone in what I have been through - thank you all so much for sharing

[NukeProf]

I know this is an old thread, but I just found it and have been interested to read the variety of symptoms experienced by different people. My symptoms were pretty different from most described above, so perhaps I should describe them here for the record.

 

It was April 29, 2019. My wife and I were in Matera, Italy where we had been traveling for about 10 days. We were scheduled to fly from Bari to Catania in Sicily the next day for a further two-week tour.

 

I woke up in our rented apartment feeling normal, but after a cup or two of expresso, I began to have vision problems typical of an ocular migraine, i.e. weird flashing geometric patterns. I lay down for a while to see if it would go away, and that is the last thing I remember. My wife said I complained of headache, but I don't remember that.

 

She managed to get us packed up and out of the apartment and she drove the rental car back to Bari to the hotel where we had reserved a room near the airport. By that time I was no longer responsive. The hotel staff took me to the main Bari hospital, and I was soon transferred to the neurointensive care unit of the University of Bari hospital.

 

I was in a deep coma for nine days. My son and daughter fly over from the U.S. to support their mother as they expected to be saying goodbye to me.

 

But miraculously I slowly came out of the coma and began to improve. Fortunately my wife had purchased a one-year emergency medical evacuation policy which covered a private flight back to Virginia with pilot, co-pilot, M.D., R.N., and medical technician in a small Learjet, on May 18.

 

I then had 30 days in hospital rehabilitation, eventually making a complete recovery. By September, 2019, I was back to five-mile hikes in the mountains and have been essentially normal since.

 

By the way, I was 77 when it happened, so I'm now 80.