Mandy Wright

I had some issues with appetite and eating while I was in hospital and for a while afterwards. I put it down to the nasty dose of oral thrush that developed while I was at my lowest. Now your I'm wondering if part of this was due to the fact that I stopped smoking at the point I had my SAH. I do know that my sense of smell seems to have become enhanced and I'm noticing some smells that I'd been oblivious to previously, eg other people's bad breath! I do hope your problems with eating resolve soon.

Hi Misskdk, and welcome aboard BTG! Wow, you have been through the mill and I send huge compliments on you getting back to work so quickly. I had my SAH in December and am only now starting a slow return to my previous routine. Feel free to use your introductory thread here to put down your thoughts and feelings and I'm sure you will soon be able to look back and see progress and developments. Like you, I've been very grateful to find this site set up by the lovely Karen. Please don't hesitate to ask any questions if you think someone may be able to help. Mandy x

Just a quick one for now to say that I'm hoping to make it to the Wessex Support meeting in Southampton tomorrow morning. If anyone spots me there please do say hello. Mandy x

John, you are so right about contrasting human interactions, and it seems so odd when you can have such a huge variation within the medical community. I don't know about you, but I tend to tell anyone new that I'm meeting, about the SAH and it surprising how many people have some knowledge of someone else who has suffered such a brain "insult" as my GP called it. I never cease to be grateful for the fact that I'm still here and the way in which I'm recovering. Life really is fragile and needs to be grasped and treasured. Finally, I love your profile picture! It reminds me of Hugh Laurie as House, in one of my favourite TV series. Mx

Hi Sharsky and welcome to the forum. I'm afraid I don't have a shunt either but others will be along soon to share their experiences, I'm sure. I do hope that your dad starts to improve soon, for both your sakes. Mx

Hi Sam and welcome aboard! This site is brilliant for support and advice and I'm sure you will gain a lot from it and the people here. Sometimes it's useful to have somewhere to post a question away from family, and to let your guard down a bit, without worrying about what anyone else thinks. Mandy x

Teechur, like Macca I absolutely love your post above. It's so very very positive - you rock girl! Mandy x

Hi Daffodil and Subzero, Thank you both so much for your advice and concern shown regarding the return to work plan. I'm very grateful for the time you both took to add some words of caution. I think I will be okay, in as much as everyone is saying I should take things at my own pace. I will need to learn to do this though as I've never really been very good at saying NO and am much more likely to take on more than I can handle. I'm currently waiting for my GP to do the return to work fit note as the last one expire on Monday. She was more than happy to put down whatever I needed and I passed across the starter plan as written up by the occupational health lady. This plan does emphasise that it will proceed at my pace and that this was to ensure the best result. I do have regular reviews scheduled with her over the coming months. I had my second official day back in the office today and actually took my laptop in with me in order to look at a small issue. It feels very odd and my vision needs further tweaking (I think this is a good sign, that the double vision has reduced further since I had the fresnel lens added to my glasses a couple of weeks ago) but I am hopeful. Two hours flies by! I've got an appointment with my optician tomorrow to review my prescription and see if I need a lower powered fresnel lens. Mandy x

Hi Clare, Well done for taking the dog for a walk! It's a beautiful day again today although a little breezier and a real incentive to get outside. I'm really stiff and sore today, probably because I spent a lot of time on my feet yesterday, and have walked further than I have in months over the last couple of days. Must work on that. Regarding the phased return, the programme was put together by the occupational health advisor usd by my employer and is as follows: Week 1. 2 x 2 hour sessions, tues and Thursday, purely socialisation and catching up with colleagues. This is mor tiring than one might imagine after 3 months off! I also had a one hour meeting with my boss, partly catching up on what I've missed and partly planning my workload. Week 2. 2 4 hour sessions of work, again Tuesday and Thursday to allow a long weekend to recover. Week 3. 3 4 hour sessions of work, Monday, Wednesday and Friday Week 4. 4 4 hour sessions, of work, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday Week 5. 5 4 hour sessions, Monday to Friday Week 6. 5 5 hour sessions, one hour shorter on Friday Week 7. 5 6 hour sessions, one hour shorter on Friday Week 8. 5 7 hour sessions, one hour shorter on Friday. Week 9. Back to normal hours The occupational health lady did say that some employers can get a bit frustrated if the return takes this many weeks, but that it gave the best chance of success, ie not needing to go sick again, especially as some employers can reduce sick pay if this happens. Leslie at Wessex neuro advised that at some stages I may need to extend a step for an extra week to give me time to adjust. Headaches are likely to be the big clue that I'm overdoing it. Also, it was generally agreed that I should avoid travelling in rush hour as far as possible to reduce stress. If you would like to see the full report then drop me a line via the messaging system and I can forward it by email. I hope this helps you.

No nap for me when I got home as I had a council meeting to attend. I could have skipped it but the next meeting is the AGM and I told myself I could always leave early... I didn't though. I may regret it tomorrow, but maybe not. On the Access To Work scheme, I did look into this on advice from my occupational health advisor but found that my employer would have to pay the first £1k of taxi fares and this just doesn't sit well with me given that they have been paying me to sit at home doing very little for the past three months. It's well worth looking into for smaller employers though, thanks Super Mario! It was good to get an idea of what my boss hopes I'll be able to achieve over the coming weeks and months, and good to catch up with some more of my colleagues. My mouth ran out of steam at times but the other half as chuffed to bits to see me waiting for him in my work suit when he got home. I'm glad he's starting to relax a bit more and not worrying about me so much. Mx

Thanks Karen! I keep reminding myself to breathe....

I'm a bit anxious today as it's my first official day back at work since the SAH on 16th December. I'm only doing 2 hours, without any real work, twice this week. Getting a fairly expensive(£25) taxi there and a lift home but for once I'm actually glad I'm not driving as its one less thing to worry about. On the plus side it's a sign of progress and a move in the right direction.

Hi Clare, I'm so glad you posted your introduction here. I know you're worried about the healing process but try to relax a bit. I had a SAH just over 12 weeks ago and things have improved for me so much in that time. There's still room for further improvements but I continue to count my blessings. I'm still here and feel so lucky. Leslie, the neuro nurse from Wessex said it can take a year or more to get as good as I'm likely to (rubbish English, sorry) so I must be patient. I suspect the same will apply for you but things really do improve so much in the first weeks I think you have room for optimism. Are you going to the Wessex support meeting on the 28th? I'm hoping to get there but rely on my other half for transport. Keep posting with updates and before long you will be able to look back and see signs of progress. Mandy xx

Tina, I need to reawaken my list-making skills which have slipped a bit since the bleed. Subzero, thanks for asking about my other half, who is often neglected when people ask how I'm doing. He has had the fright of his life, or at least the second one having lost a young son a few years ago. He is slowly getting back to normal, starting to shout at politicians on the TV again (he's a vocal Scot) and relaxing a bit more where I'm concerned. I know he's a bit anxious about my return to work, but also pleased for me that I'm starting to return to normal. I need to learn to ask him for more help, rather than going with my default response of saying I'm fine and can manage everything. But I like being independent and capable. Mx

Thanks so much to you Karen, and Andy and Heather, for this post and the link to the news item. I never cease to be amazed at the complexity of the brain and personality, and the potential impact of damage to either. Mx

I know I'm more emotional currently than I am usually but I was particularly saddened to hear of the death of Terry Pratchett this afternoon. Dementia is a horrible disease and took my mum far too early (mid sixties) so this possibly explains the effect the news had on me, at least in part. But I also loved his books and found him to be the only author who made me laugh out loud. I'm glad he as able to live a fulfilling life for as long as he could, despite the diagnosis.

I had my 12 week review this week - where did that time go?! I was fascinated to finally see the images that highlighted my SAH, the aneurysm and coiling. Managed to take some snaps of these with my phone and uploaded them to Facebook. I thought that the bleed would have looked worse on the first CT scan but there was just some quite faint fuzzy white stuff near the middle of my skull to show the cause of my crushing headache, stiff neck, vision problems and sickness. A 3 mm aneurysm coiled with 3x 8cm platinum coils, apparently. The consultant has been in touch with the DVLA to confirm that he is happy with me neurologically - I gave them a call once I had confirmed this and the lady said I should hear 6 weeks after they received his report. She also said that, providing my consultant is happy with me, then it would be legal for me to drive, but I'm going to err on the side of caution her and wait to get something in writing in the next 4 weeks. I still have some double vision but the impact of this has been dramatically reduced following the application of a fresnel lens on my glasses. I've noticed one very minor deficit following the SAH and that is that I no longer seem to be able to solve anagrams. I've become hooked on the daytime TV programme Pointless and that's the one category that I really have problems with. I guess it's tied into the language centre issues and speech going when I'm tired. Two days left at home this week and then I start the slow process of returning to work next week. It's a little daunting but exciting too, although I do wish I'd managed to achieve more during my extended sick leave. Although to be fair, if I was able to achieve as much as I had hoped to then I probably should have returned to work sooner! I think my biggest challenge over the coming weeks and months is going to be getting better at planning. I haven't really needed to plan much while being at home, but will need to do more of this if I'm going to give myself the best chance of getting back to the best possible "new normal" in the future.

This is terrific news and I'm really please for you both. Thank you so much for the update. Mandy

Thanks Sharlua. I will begin a very slow phased return the 13th week after the SAH and it will take at least a couple of months. Hopefully I'll be back at work full time by 6 months. You take it easy - I hope the headaches improve soon. Mx

Time has been one of the oddest things since my SAH. I would have sworn that I was in hospital for at least two weeks, at the time I left, but it was only just over a week. I had thought that 3-6 months to return to work would drag terribly, but it's 12 weeks on Tuesday since my SAH. The time has gone so quickly. Oddly, while the weekends have continued to fly by, as they did before I was off sick, the weeks have also passed quickly which was a relief in the early days as I missed the company of my other half. The occupational health advisor for work has come up with a plan for the phased return, starting the week after next. I'm a little scared, although everyone has been good about saying I can take things at my own pace. The thing is though, I have an incentive to complete the return by early June to ensure I keep my full salary. Currently each step on the phased return lasts for a week and that completes in early May so I have a month of leeway if any of the steps proves tricky and I need to stretch it out a bit. My other half and others continue to say how well I look and and seem to be. I'm keen to prove to every one that I'm "okay" but of course, I have had a SAH and there are still some issues. I want people to understand and not expect too much of me, but I want them to treat me as they did before, too! Oh well, at least I can blame my contrariness on being female! I had some good news last week. I finally saw an orthoptist privately about the double vision. She was able to confirm that in the 6 weeks since I saw my optician, my divergence had reduced from 35 to 20 degrees. This had a bigger effect on my other half than it did me. I had always had confidence that the problem would resolve with time but he had thought this may have been my lasting legacy following the SAH and that it may never improve. He was smiling like a Cheshire Cat for days! I did check with my GP about taking Ibuprofen, given the warning about strokes on the data sheet. She was finally able to find the information that stated it was due to the slight increase in risk of clotting, and was happy to state that, provide I stayed on a low dose (less than 600mg) per day there wouldn't be any problems for me. I had previously resisted taking this while in hospital as I'd previously had them cause me a big attack of gastritis, for which I endd up taking Ibuprofen on an empty stomach, thinking it was a flare up of IBS! Bad idea. I've since taken a couple of doses of long acting Ibuprofen with main evening meal which seems to have helped a lot with the night time back pain. Learning to pace myself is going to be the biggest challenge. I was always an all or nothing sort before my SAH but this simply doesn't work any more. There will be no more intense weekends working in the garden and collapsing in a heap on a Sunday night.... But for now, I have some seedlings that need potting on.. Where are my spoons?!

Well worth a listen, thanks Daffodil.

Thanks Daffodil, for the helpful tips! Time does seem to run differently now, although the Mon-Fri stretch goes quicker than it did when I was working, the weekend still flies by. I like having the other half around but possibly push myself a bit further at the weekend, and am less likely to pace myself well when people are around. I'm sure you'll regain previous form with time. Mandy x

Tina, Thank you so much for the positive comments and warm encouragement - you're lovely! The coordination issues do mean I make a bit of a mess at times, particularly when cooking. But at least I have an excuse now! Mandy xx

Hi Jane, it's so good to know you've come through your operation and that the other aneurysms haven't grown. As you and the others have said it's really good to hear that the stroke symptoms are improving too. Take good care of yourself and stay in touch. Xx

Ah, Win, I know what you mean. I did have to tell the beloved to stop being so nice; it took a little while but he's almost back to the grumpy old man I know and love!