Hi, I thought I'd better share my experience after I have found this website and various links so beneficial.
I suffered a SAH on 15 June 2015. I had come home from work at lunchtime and soon after I felt a strange 'filling up' sensation in my head, then an unbelievable headache. I staggered round to the doctors surgery only to be sent away to wait for a phone call. I returned home, collapsed on the floor, finally spoke to the emergency doctor on the phone and to cut a long story short, my wife dropped me off at A & E (Leicester Royal Infirmary).
I could just about walk and speak, and by the time my wife I had found me, I was on drip and heading for a CT scan. I'd had a bleed on brain and and it was then a 'blue light' to Nottingham, Queen Medical Centre. Somehow my wife managed to remain unbelievably calm, hold it all together, sort the children out for the night and the next day at school, and still beat the ambulance to Nottingham.
Another scan the next morning failed to find the the source of the bleed, and as there was apparently no aneurysm to be found, no coiling procedure and I was very lucky.
The care at QMC was excellent but I was sent home after only 3 days, far too soon and with nothing in the way of guidance as to what was coming next! I felt quite good in hospital, the calm before the storm, and it was only after reading so much about the subject that I realised just how close a call this had been.
The pain over the period from the Thursday night home to the end of the first weekend, was like nothing I had ever experienced before. By the Sunday evening, after being stuffed with codeine, paracetamol and diazepam (emergency appointment with the doctor on the Friday - amazing how a SAH allows you to jump the usual queue) was the pain just about under control.
I spent the next three weeks sleeping most of the time and slowly weening myself off all but the paracetamol.
The headaches and the extreme tiredness, fatigue etc were to be expected and were manageable but the anxiety and panic attacks in those early weeks very very frightening. It was only through reading of other patient experiences and watching the Southampton video that it all started to make sense.
In the scale of SAH, I think I got off lightly but it has still been a life changing experience. I started a very slow and still on-going phased return to work in mid August, and don't expect to be back to more regular hours until late October at the earliest.
I thought I was doing really well up to last weekend, with returning to work, regular exercise etc, until having what I think was my first ever migraine (blurred vision flashing lights etc). I was back in A & E for another CT scan, and although thankfully all was ok, the event has shaken my confidence and brought all the anxiety back.
Without the support of my family, friends, work colleagues and the experiences that others have shared through this and related websites, I don't think I'd be this far on the road to recovery.
