Juliette

I was wondering how flying affects us after SAH. Did anyone who's flown have pain or starnge feelings in their head during or after the flight? I was going to fly to France Saturday (almost 4 months post coiling), but whimped out and we're driving instead! Agree about exhaustion after travelling - went to my uncles 60th party & it took 4 days to recover from the travelling. He lives about 4 hours away, we stayed for the weekend. Was tired most of the time:frown:

I was told by the Drs at the hospital that it was up to the DVLA when you can drive as it depends on your personal circumstances. I filled out the medical forms as soon as i left hospital and had a letter back quite quickly saying i could drive until they made a decision! I waited about 3 months after coiling, when i felt ready, & took someone with me the first few times. I slowly built up the distance (not that i go far!) & won't drive at night because i only have vision in one eye as a result of the coiling, but may in future after lots of practice. I believe you have to inform the DVLA and they'll let you know, and don't forget to let your insurance company know. Didn't make any difference to my premium, but if you don't tell them i think you might have difficulty making claims (don't quote me on any of this though because i'm no expert!) x

Thank you to everyone for the welcome. Sure i'll have lots of questions for you all! xx

Hello, I’m Juliette. Had my SAH on December 15th 2010 – the day before I was supposed to be going away for Christmas! Luckily I had just dropped my 2 young girls (2 & 4) off to childcare & school. I was literally 2 steps from my eldest daughters classroom when the headache hit. As I’m sure you all know, it felt like someone had put a clamp on my brain & was squeezing. This was followed by the sweats & vomiting. Very painful & scary not knowing what was going on. Luckily the people working at the school were fantastic and took me to my drs – they did offer to call an ambulance, but I thought I was having the worst migraine ever! The Dr put a 999 call through, but the rapid response didn’t turn up for nearly 2.5 hours. The ambulance an hour after that:frown:. Supposedly the Drs is a seen as a safe haven so they don’t rush as much! My Dr called them at least 3 times. In the mean time I was in agony not being given pain relief as the Dr wanted them to see me as I was. Eventually I got to the 1st hospital and had a CT scan that showed a bleed. Sometime during the night they transferred me to the The Heath in Cardiff where I spent the next week lying flat and having 3 angios to see where the bleed was coming from. Was told there was so much blood they couldn’t see the aneurysm to start with. The neuro Radiologist in Cardiff was off ill then, so was lucky enough the Fantastic medical staff at Frenchay, Bristol were willing to give coiling it a go – aneurysm was small & awkward. Got Helicoptered over, so at least arrived in style! Unfortunately during the procedure I lost the vision in my right eye, but as my consultant said, 1 life 2 eyes... Initially I was really upset, but got over it and have adapted quite quickly. Can’t really remember what it was like to have proper vision anymore! They let me out Jan 4th this year. Although I was desperate to get home, I was worried going away from the safety of the hospital. I’m generally an optimistic person, so although I do have my days when the pains in my head scare me and make me worry its going to happen again, I’m not going to let it take over my life. I have 2 beautiful girls & a wonderful husband to keep me occupied! I would like to say how amazingly talented and fantastic all the staff at the hospitals are. Without them I wouldn’t be here. It’s incredible what they can do now. Eternal gratitude to them!