JayKay

Hello and welcome! Glad you are enjoying life!!

Zoe, don't panic, you did the right thing letting of steam here! I was in dire financial straits after my SAH as I was the sole breadwinner (partner was self-employed and contracts dried up). I said this somewhere else too, but I phoned the Council because I was scared of being repossessed, and they put us in touch with a debt counsellor at the Council itself. The guy has been AMAZING explaining what help is out there, helping my partner complete forms to get mortgage interest relief, etc etc. Don't sit there and worry about things, but get all the help you are entitled to. CAB are also good, but in our case it was the guy at the Council. Call yours first thing and find out if they can help. Also, please tell Richard that my mother had a stroke in her 70s and couldn't speak/swallow/move her right side at all, was in nappies etc, got c diff and MRSA and we really thought the worst. Well, she had intensive physio, speech therapy and occupational therapy and she is doing amazing. She can walk, use her right hand, talk etc and is living alone with just a home help a couple of times a week. There IS life after stroke, and he WILL improve if he just sticks at it. Please tell him we are rooting for him!! Take care and PM me if you need to chat xxx

It's interesting to read everyone's take on this. I was told in the night after my CT scan that I'd had a SAH. I had heard of SAH because I'm a medical secretary, but I didn't know the statistics - which is probably a good thing! I realised when they said they were blue lighting me to Queen Square that it must be serious because that is the leading hospital (or so I understand) for brain surgery, but still I was blissfully unaware of the dangers. I think it was because I felt so ILLLLL ! When my pop happened, I felt very suddenly like my head and neck and upper chest were in a pressure cooker. I don't remember feeling like I'd been hit over the head, however I felt "this must be what a stroke feels like", and found myself running through FAST in my head. When I realised I could speak, didn't have a drooping face and could move all four limbs I thought it couldn't be a stroke.... But I'm glad I insisted to the paramedics that I needed to go to hospital. The young F2 there insisted on a CT scan and the rest is history. I was told in hospital that SAH came under the heading of stroke, and when I got back to Watford the volunteers from the Stroke Association came and talked to me. One of the guys came back with literature, and in it, it said that 80% of strokes are ischaemic (clots/blockages) and 20% are bleeds, or "haemorrhagic strokes". So yes, definitely a type of stroke. Not sure if that helped me, but having access to the Stroke Association volunteers was helpful, as was the Brain and Spine Association booklet on SAH given to me by the Specialist Nurse in Queen Square. I just wanted to say also that since I've been home I've had contact with the Neuro nurse via Queen Square, and I have a full package of care in place via my local hospital with visits from Occupational Therapist, a neuropsych consult tomorrow, and a patient held record which is a big red folder where all my attendants can write their summaries etc. I am blown away by how good the follow-up is, to be honest!

Hypo is underactive, hyper is overactive. Is the doctor planning to do a fine needle aspiration of a nodule?

Hello and welcome. You are among friends here!

This is an interesting thread, but I must caution against self diagnosis and self medication. I had Graves' Disease (overactive thyroid) in my twenties - went undiagnosed for a year because instead of rapidly losing weight and having bulging eyes I put ON weight. I gained about 20kgs and then when I was diagnosed I gained another 10 in about a month. I was treated with tablets for 2 years then stopped, but was told I might relapse. This is what happens, so I was treated with radio-iodine and eventually went underactive, which is very common. I was convinced my metabolism was "different" to everyone else's... until I started working for a Consultant Endocrinologist (who was head of the Endocrine section at the Royal College of Physicians). I now know that most people lose weight with an overactive gland, but by no means every person reacts the same. When you are on Thyroxine, the doctors should aim for your TSH to be low (towards 1) and the T4 towards the upper end of the range, around 20. GPs tend to see the results and say that anywhere in the range is ok. This is true if you are NOT on medication, but the specialists say that "optimum" is the levels I state at the beginning of this paragraph. There is no hard clinical evidence to say that Armour Thyroid, T3 etc is of any use at all. In fact my boss gets a LOT of patients who have been given Thyroxine when they didn't have an underactive gland to start with, and this causes all kinds of problems with the pituitary axis long term. Your body converts the T4 to T3. You can read the British Thyroid Association's opinion on this here. (ETA: In England, the reference ranges are in mIU/L for the TSH and mmol/L for the T4, just in case anyone is reading in the USA or elsewhere and the numbers don't seem right!!)

That's interesting. I did see on Different Strokes that they work with a company who are used to covering people with stroke/SAH so maybe they're worth a try. Can't remember who though!

Hi Blueday. I'm like the others above - I only say the odd wrong word or blank, but aphasia as I understand it is much more than that. I'm sure your consultant will be able to explain. An example of my little problem is today when I said to my daughter "I thought it was P.I.G." instead of "C.G.I." lol! We laughed for ages

Saffy - don't be embarrassed or unwilling to try anti-depressants. They really can help. I have suffered from reactive depression in the past and the pills helped me to take a step back and to get on with my life. If the pills you have aren't right for you, see GP again and ask for a different one. They will help you hang in there until 17th May. Hugs!

Thank you Blueday Food for thought...

Aw! All the best saffy. Do you know? Last weekend our local hospital admitted FOUR people with SAH! My ex-boss told me they were all bad ones Good luck for a bed soon.

Hi again Di - as I said on another thread, I had my SAH the night before you had yours. I'm lucky that the doctor at the hospital pushed for a CT scan immediately and I was transferred to the Neurology Hospital. I felt able to return to work also after 9 weeks, but I'm really pleased that my other half wouldn't hear of it because since I've started doing more I've also noticed more problems! I definitely can't multitask any more and I have trouble concentrating so work would be a stretch too far right now, I feel. Having had a craniotomy I suppose the recovery time will be a bit longer. Anyway, take care and look forward to "chatting" more...

That's very interesting! My aneurysm was in the ACoA and I do have short-term memory problems. I don't know I'm missing stuff until I'm told about it, so it's a very strange thing. I think I'm absolutely fine lol!!

Hi Sally! I'm glad you found us I haven't been here that long, but everyone's been brilliant - very warm and supportive. And funny! Take care.

Di - I could have written that post!! I had mine on 10th Feb 2010 in the evening (!) and was transported to Queen Square when you had yours.... I was also in a VERY stressful job. In fact, I could have lost my house over this so am seriously thinking of suing IF a link can be proved. I shall wait to see what the neurosurgeon says. I too feel a bit of a fraud. It's hard to put into words though, but I really understand you! Ann - I'm in Herts but I don't have a car We could hook up some time!

Great news, and I hope he goes from strength to strength!

Hmm never heard of that. I know you can have blood clots on the pill....

Hi again Blueday. No, my mum had a stroke caused by a clot. They said this was caused by atrial fibrillation (that we didn't know she had), but now it transpires that she, my sister and a nephew all have too many platelets, and that thickens the blood... so who knows why she had the stroke really. Her mother had mini-strokes and then died from a massive stroke at 76. Because she had mini ones first, my boss the Consultant says she probably had a clot rather than a bleed but of course we'll never really know. They say (I believe) that SAH can run in families if you have at least 2 first degree relatives who've had one. Karen - you are right: I'm definitely planning to look after myself first, but to have the goal of founding a group is something to look forward to.

Well Karen, all I can say is THANK YOU! When I was in hospital I was already thinking about setting up a help group locally, which I will still do at some point so we can get together for coffee and a chat or something, but in the meantime BTG is a godsend. Like Bogbrush then!!

Yeah, WAKEY WAKEY people! Blueday you're so positive, you are an inspiration But you are right, life is good for us all.

My mum still has speech therapy 4 years on! But then, she lives in France.... There are more speech therapists there, but it just goes to show what could happen if we had more resources. Good luck Rod, getting help for Merrill.

That's brilliant about the smoking Saffy, as they do say it's not good for you! Good luck with everything - I'm sure it'll be fine. The doctors know what they are doing...

Yes I saw that on the American bafoundation forum. Also someone wrote about Miss Teen Hawaii who died of a burst aneurysm last week - only 18 There's a lot of it about! My sister lost a 16 yr old student in her class last year, same thing. We are the lucky ones!!

Welcome again Blueday (I said hello in another thread!). You are doing fantastic - living with aphasia must be very frustrating. My mother had a stroke 4 years ago and couldn't speak at all to begin with, but with intensive speech therapy she's a lot better now. Luckily she just laughs it off when she can't find a word, but it's hard. So well done you, and I look forward to "chatting" to you again.

I keep thinking about you and Rich! I just wanted to say that my mum had a stroke at 74 and it was horrible - she got aspiration pneumonia, c.diff, MRSA, everything, and this was in a French teaching hospital! Anyway, we thought we were going to lose her, yet bit by bit she made such a fantastic recovery. She couldn't speak or move her right side at first, and now she is living alone (with a home help and a cleaner twice a week) and doing A-MA-ZING. I'm telling you this to give you hope because I don't think anyone, not even the doctors, can tell what the future holds but there IS life after stroke. And Rich is young so he has that on his side. Just a thought - she doesn't remember the 6 weeks in hospital (in nappies) at all but her memories start from when she was moved to the rehab place, and that's probably a good thing because nappies + c.diff = sores so you can imagine it wasn't very nice. Anyway, hope Rich goes from strength to strength. Take care x