Shobs

Hello dear fellow SAH members, I am a new member in this forum and very happy that i came across this site. I have read and re-read many forums and articles in this site for re-assurance. It has been an eventful (and still counting!) since October 2016, when my husband (39) had his ruptured SAH. I wanted to share my story and seek reassurance all in this thread and hopefully, someday like many of you here, be able to look back how it has reshaped our lives for good. It was a regular day when my husband did the taxi duty for my children boy(7) & girl(5) from their classes. I was at my work when i got a call from him telling that he had non-stop vomiting. He attributed it to the food that he had at that time. I went to pick him up whilst both of my children took care of their father (yes!) After we came home, his vomiting stopped, however the splitting headache continued on saturday, but he was able to rest(restlessly) throughout. Since the nausea or the headache did not reside, we decided to go to A&E that morning and it was the Sunday morning that the collapse happened and that was something I will never forget! He collapsed on Sunday morning, Called the A&E, as that collapse did not look right to me, it surely did not look like a faint due to no-eating for 1.5 days. The A&E crew came pretty soon and they started off their assessment - they did the FAST test, which my husband was fine with. The factor that was worrying them was the BP that was quite high - a whopping 240/180 We were taken to Northwick Park A&E where was taken into a scan pretty much straight away into HDU and they came out to tell me that my husband had a subarachnoid haemorhage because of a ruptured aneurysm and his BP is still unable to be controlled. A couple of minutes later another machine went in to his room and they came back to tell his kidneys were failing too. I was trying to come in terms with what i have been just told and went completely numb. The kids were sent off to friends house and the way friends rallied up to help makes me go on knees with gratitude. We were told that we need to be moved to Charing Cross Hospital as they have the speciatlity neursurgery unit. THe wait for the bed was quite long but the A&E doctors were chasing them actively. The move happened in few hours! In the charing cross hospital, we were sent to the CCU and 2 options of coiling and clipping, my husband was slipping in and out consciousness till Monday afternoon until he was taken to angio where it was decided they will clip it. However, due to the nature and the location of the aneurysm, the clipping option was aborted and he was wheeled out with the coiling procedure pencilled in for Tuesday. Another torturous day passes. On tuesday he was taken in for another angio and coiling procedure was successful - yay! I returned home to se my children after 3 days of total absence, who were housed by our exceptionally kind friends for those days and not to mention my guardian angel, my mum who flew in from India on tuesday to support us. When i returned the wednesday morning, i was greeted with a rather sad news that my husband has had an ischeamic stroke during the coiling procedure. He was taken into the CT scan area for many times to establish if that was going to be permanent. I was dreamily expecting my husband to wake up cheerfully and that is it, nightmare over. But I was naive (or fooled by many movie scenes) It was seemingly distressing 3 days and the distress was increasing in leaps and bounds in terms of chest infection, less oxygen in take, decreased renal function and the sense of hopelessness in the chief of that ward's face despite everyone's best attempts. On wednesday, i had another news to take in - which was that the other there is another part of the aneurysm that is still not coiled and it needs continual monitoring. I will never forget that day when the doctor told me about that! On Friday/Saturday he opened his eyes and until tuesday Sandeep was in between conscious and unconscious and much of his talking was not understandable. Slowly on wednesday there was a sudden clarity in his eyes and it was like a light switched on! he was becoming restless because he was unable to move his left side at all. On wednesday we were moved to the Acute Stroke ward. Those 2 weeks were not very pleasant either with him discovering how weak his left side has become. Nimodipine was still on every 4 hours for 21 days. On top of all the existing issues, we got to know that he had an EColi infection when he was in the CCU) The renal function did not resume and it was still hovering over eGFR 35% and the BP was over 150/100. We were moved to Northwick park hospital for further recovery and also renal function and BP management Another 3 weeks in Northwick park hospital with various tests and follow-up and scary news and finally we got home on the 14 of November. AT this stage, we did not know anything about the follow-up about the other aneurysm at all! We were/are still attached to the renal clinic where his BP is managed, at the early days of discharge we had to go in alternate days to see this Godsent doctor who took many of the outstanding tasks in his hands and sent us for tests and mixed and matched the medicines to get his BP under control!! It was/is such a relief to be under his care. There was good resting at home, however the sleep was tremendously disturbed. Early in Jan, we were going to get a biopsy done on the kidneys, unfortunately we were told that he has CKD stage 3-4. There have numerous test and visits to various clinic between the time of discharge and now. They manifest a change in him each time, seen as a deterioration or a new normal as we beginning to accept it. He has started to work part-time, but that has taken a set-back because of the fatigue and also another DSA in April 2017 to find how the posterior aneurysm. I hope we get an all-clear. As of today, fatigue and sleepless ness are the top most factor affecting our day-to-day activities. There is lots of medidation, walking, massage, teas in various orders thrown in, but still seems to have less or no effect. Daily sleep quota is not more than 2 or 3 hrs (max!) GP prescribed very mild sleeping pills, but it makes him even more hazy the following day and somewhat elevated BP. With the reduced kidney function (30%) the diet is even more restricted than it would be regularly. I remember a well said statement 'It is not a sprint, it is marathon' We are into the marathon, one day is not the same another. We are taking the day as it comes, but yes, there are days where I want to throw everything that I have in my hand and howl. Thank you for reading such a long post!