My Story by kelvz48

Sorry it's a long one.

Here goes - I am a 45 year old healthy man, never had any real illness. The last week of July 2010 I had my Subarachnoid Haemorrhage but of coarse did not know it at the time. I was at home when all of a sudden it felt like someone was kicking me in the back of the head. I felt like passing out and throwing up. Next I lost all feeling in my right leg and really started to worry as I had never experienced any thing like this in the past. I managed to crawl to the sofa to lay down and thats where I probably passed out. The next couple of days are a total blank to me as I was so spaced out so the following is my wife's account. She came home to find me on the sofa, I woke up or came round and constantly complained of a terrible headache, tension in the back of my neck, blurred vision, was vommiting from time to time and also talking a load of nonsense. All this happened on Thursday and of coarse I was no better on Friday and by now my wife was getting concerned as she could tell this was something more than just the usual man flu and so telephoned for a doctor to make a house visit that evening. The lady doctor arrived some time later and was visably put out at having to make a house call on a Friday evening.

She had forgotten to bring her stethoscope so was unable to take my blood pressure and concluded that I had a flu like virus and was to take plenty of fluids. And so it was for the weekend, me totally spaced out and my wife trying to get me to drink lots of water. On the Sunday my wife said she would phone my work to let them know I would not be in the following day but apparently I was adamant that I would do it myself, so she agreed and went to her work. Monday morning a colleague was phoning to enquire of my whereabouts. Thats when my wife knew there was something very wrong as I am always very organised when it comes to my work so she telephoned my father for a lift to the doctors. By this time I could not stand on my own two feet and had to be helped into the surgery. The doctor I saw did not really know what was the matter with me but was not happy with what he was seeing and so admitted me to the local hospital for tests. I stayed there for three days while they did all the tests. When eventually they found out what was wrong with me I had to be taken to Cardiff hospital which is 50 miles away. My wife and I spent a very uncomfortable night there and the following day everything was explained to my wife and what procedure urgently needed to be done but unfortunately the person who does the procedure was away and so I was being taken to Bristol hospital another 20 or 30 miles away. The ambulance arrived some time that night to take me as an emergency to Bristol. When I arrived we were told it was too late that night for the procedure to be done. Now I must say at this point that all the staff at Bristol were amazing. Anyway I finally got my anni coiled on 13th August 2010. I made a really good recovery following the procedure (you all know the drill being in a high dependancy unit). Five days later I was taken back to Cardiff hospital and then on 20th August after some nagging from myself I was allowed to come home. I was very weak for some time and needed constant care from my wife and family. Now I am much stronger and able to do things by myself. The downside is all the emotions I find myself going through, fear, sorrow and anger. When I left hospital I was not given any information on what to expect such as the emotions, the fear at every little pain in the head, the joint pains or being unable to sleep. Sorry to go on so much but that is basicly my story.