Attempt number 3 at writing this so here it goes..
Hi! I am a survivor!
On 3rd July I woke at 5am feeling great. Then at 5.30am bam! That baseball bat hit on the head we all know about. Oh my god never felt pain like it. I spent the morning clutching my head with my eyes closed, every now and then getting up and being sick. I lay there wondering if I was having a stroke. I even stood in front of the mirror doing the tests on myself, smile, tongue, talking, lifting arms, nothing indicted what was going on. I could finally keep painkillers down at 2pm. At 3.30pm I got up, got in the car and drove to work to collect my laptop to work from home.
I thought I was just having a really bad migraine. Not like one I had ever had but a migraine. The next few days I carried on. I took the dog on some long walks. All the time I had a headache. On the Monday I went to work and called the NHS helpline as I still had the head ache. I told them what had happened etc, they said keep taking the painkillers.
On the Tuesday before work I managed to get an appointment at my doctors. Not with a doctor, (haven't been able to get one with a doc for the last 3 years as the receptionist seems of think she is medically trained enough to know who I should see). This appointment was with a paramedic practitioner. He listened to me, he did the same tests I had done. He said "I don't think you have had a haemorrhage, so just keep taking your pain killers,". I looked at his computer screen and he had a "different types of headache" Web page up. That worried me a bit!
I carried on as normal, working every day. Then on the 10th I drove from Sussex coast to Leeds. Dropped my son off with friends at the music festival we were helping out at, then I drove to Hull to spend the night with a friend. As I was pulling my bag out of the car, bam! Back of the head again. I nearly collapsed, left the bag in the car and went into my friends. I spent 2 hours with my head in my arms on her kitchen table apologising for being so useless. I went to bed and spent the night being sick and crying in pain. I was like that until about 3pm the next day.
I then got up and informed my friend I was going to drive to the hotel in Leeds I had booked as I had paid for it. I got to the hotel, checked in and went straight bed. Spent the night being sick, the "migraine" had got worse again. I set off the fire alarms in the hotel because I had a shower and then couldn't turn it off and the steam activated the smoke detector.
My room phone rang and it was one of my friends asking if she could come up and see me as they had been trying to get hold of me. She came up and spoke to me and called an ambulance. It was then I was told it was Monday, I thought it was Sunday. I lost 24 hrs in that hotel room. I was taken to my first hospital. Where they diagnosed me with suffering a SAH. They blue lighted me to Leeds General. They managed to get hold of my parents who thankfully were visiting friends up north at the time. I was informed I needed surgery, and that it would be early the next day. They took me down earlier than first thought, and had my burst aneurysm coiled. Whilst in there I was discovered to be suffering vasospasm, which was treated. I spent quite a few days in HDU then got moved up to the ward.
I was in hospital for just under 2 weeks. I have been very lucky and don't seem to have been adversely affected physically, not to mention the fact I am still alive, even after the first bleed on the 3rd untreated. So there you go, my story, bit of a long one I'm afraid. I have been home since 7th August. Finding it a little difficult. But hey I'm alive!
Beth Archer changed their profile photo
