I've been looking for a good forum to join for a couple weeks now, so glad I found this place!
I had my SAH October 22 if this year, exactly one month before my 32nd birthday. I was out to dinner with some friends for someone else's birthday celebration when suddenly the music cut out, sharp pains in my head, and I broke out into a sweat and became dizzy. I grabbed my friend's shoulder and she took one look at me and said "are you okay? You're white as a sheet!" All i could say was "No, I don't think so. I might need someone to ccall an ambulance..."
Two of my friends helped me to the restroom, where I got sick and couldn't stand for long. They took me to aa local emergency clinic, and upon giving them my symptoms, received a CT which showed a brain bleed. I was rushed to the neuro unit at the hospital (reportedly one of the best in the state, glad to say) and admitted for more tests. It was an SAH, which I laughed at. "Under spider bleed?" I said, having a decent grasp of Latin words and prefixes.
I underwent surgery the next morning, where they clipped the aneurism. Apparently i had severe vasospasm during surgery and stayed in ICU for several days. I had aa couple other surgeries as well as an angioplasty...I don't really remember most of it, my friends tell me I was pretty oout of it the first few days. In my memory, though, the worst part about the hospital was that they partially shaved my beautiful long red hair and left me with a hhuge, ugly scar at my hairline; the catheter did something weird to my bladder and I had to urinate, badly, several times a day (and sometimes didnt make it to the bathroom); and they wouldn't let me take showers with staples in. Coming home, I've been exhausted and depressed, adding to the fact that I've been unemployed since August and spend most of my days looking for a new job and fighting with the government for my unemployment insurance.
The hardest part for me is the fear. I haven't had any all-out panic attacks (yet), but there is a constant, overwhelming sense of dread that it will happen again, or that I will lose functionality in an area I require. I have never had a good memory, so I don't really notice that. I read the blogs and forums and hear a lot of people saying they feel "detached;" that hasn't affected me yet, but I'm scared that it will. I get dizzy any time I change altitude...standing up, lying down, moving quickly puts the universe on spin cycle for a half a minute or so. I decided to stay away from alcohol altogether, and I get so tired I'm worried that if i do get a job soon, I'll blow it by being physically weak. The bills are sstarting to come in, and as iI didn't have insurance when I went into the hospital, that's just more stress.
Any tips?
P.S. Please forgive typos and double letters...I'm typing this on my phone and iit doesn't always play right.
