Teechur

Engaging the quads like that in mountain pose will definitely help with those knees. It also releases the hammier, and tight hamstrings can cause back issues. I am a trainer and I use yoga intermingled with strength training in my one on one sessions and in bootcamp.

Today I got a 2.5 mile walk in with my husband and *drumroll* NO WALKER! Tired...very very tired and it might have been a bit too much. Tomorrow is my running class (I'm the coach) and I'll be running the water stops for them all.

I am considering trying to find a tai chi class for movement and balance as I get a little further along in my recovery. Has anyone tried tai chi? I've had to give up karate for now and thought it might be an excellent alternative.

Thanks everyone! That is very helpful. You have no idea what a breath of fresh air this is!

I get this halfway between "Am I just being careful or am I being lazy?" For example, I called off work yesterday after working 3 days. I could have worked, but I was starting to feel a lot of fatigue on Wed night so rather than teach bootcamp, I monitored and I stayed home Thursday knowing that I had more important things to do today. I teach IT classes and had to check off the kids' servers and virtual servers, which meant going around the room and being able to give verbal cues to check skills. I also have PT on Tues and Thurs nights and so far it's been good, but exhausting.

Logically and physically it was a good choice. Emotionally I felt guilty because I "could" have made it through the day yesterday.

Today I felt fabu, almost normal...headachy a little spidery in the head (that odd feeling that things are crawling on my brain), but excellent clarity. After work we walked a few miles out to dinner then back. But I can feel it now...so probably overdid it, but it's a learning experience. Still feel good about the day.

Oh and driving, my doctor cleared me to drive last week but told me to use my judgement. I honestly didn't feel I should these last two weeks, but I am thinking of trying close trips.

Thanks! Yes, that was one thing that hit me...my doctor has never had the experience and so even though she can give me time frames, the ones who have been the most helpful are people who have either had this experience, nurses who have worked in neurology, and my PT (who has worked in neurology and with a lot of stroke patients).

Today was SUCH a good day! i had clarity today I haven't had since pre-Spidey. I was able to get so much done! I know tomorrow might be different (I had a few hours of good clarity last Sunday night), but at least it feels like progress. I even got home with energy to spare. My husband and I walked out to dinner (without a walker, yay) and got in 2.5 miles (he held my hand so I didn't fall, but really I think it's about time to say adios to the walker). I am now pinging all over the place and very fatigued, but at least I know why! (More fatigued than I normally am after running 20 miles, but that's okay...it'll come.)

This site gives me hope and there is NOTHING more blessed than a good day! I don't even mind that the walk home was in the rain!

I read a lot, and hear a lot from my PT, friends who are nurses, etc. that I need to be careful or I'll set myself back.

This seems like a stupid question...but how do you KNOW what's too much? I mean I can often figure out what's too much AFTER I've done it and I'm drooling out the side of my mouth. But how have you learned to limit yourself and what happens in a "set back?"

I know I feel 2x stronger this week than I did last. This weekend I want to try to drive and lose the walker, but my husband is nervous. It's been just under six weeks and it wasn't a "bad" SAH compared to others.

Thanks Sue!

That is so good to hear. I feel like I just rambled in my intro mainly because it's so hard to find someone to TALK TO about this! I had a great PT session today. I started out doing some of the neuro stuff and a lady jokingly gave me a hard time because my exercises are so "easy". I know she didn't MEAN to be so thoughtless, but right now I feel like half of me wants to NOT let people know what happened, but half of me wants to wear a button that says "Not firing on all pistons so be nice". I think that's what's hard...people tell me I need to take it easy, then they ask me to do 15 things for them and if I can't they act like I'm letting them down.

At any rate...the session was good. I could do things today that I could not do a week and a half ago. Strength is much improved. Balance is still off but better than it was. I'm not stumbling as much. He's going to give me exercises for my eyes, which is great!

I honestly thought I would get out of the hospital and go right back to life. Unfortunately I think I gave that impression to others too. I'm just hoping I can get through the next few weeks and into spring break, relax and recoup, and then make it to summer!

I've been calling mine my stroke of genius! And yes, I do feel very fortunate. I think I'm still in the overwhelmed state, though. I'm not used to feeling that way...but I know it won't last forever.

Yep, I'm in this bracket too!!

Had SAH on 29th January and was in Southampton Hospital until 8th Feb. No aneurysm found and doctors have no idea what caused bleed on brain. Had lots of pressure/pain in head while there so after c.5 days they did an LP (lumbar puncture) and took around 2ml ****** fluid which helped. Then got lots of pain in base of spine with spasms in my bottom and coccyx area from around 5th Feb + odd tremors in legs and right arm, curious bright red dots happening on forehead which doctors said wasn't anything to do with SAH (but never had them before).

Nic

x

I had those spasms in the hospital too and they were HORRIBLE! At one point one of my sweet nurses was in the middle of the night rubbing my poor spasming gluteals because there was no way she could give me more pain pills. Finally they gave me enough morphine to kick it in the rear...but wow it hurt!

Had my SAH on Jan 28 and am still recovering. Looking forward to putting this all behind me.

You have no idea how THRILLED I am to find this thread! I posted my story in the regular thread. Anyhow, I'm a long distance runner myself...70 marathons/ultras under my belt. I'm not fast, but I can run for a really really long time, and I love it.

Right now, not quite six weeks post SAH, I feel so frustrated. Sometimes I almost feel "normal". I'll go to a bootcamp class (I teach bootcamp 2x a week) and feel awesome, but then get home and I realize I've overdone it and pay for it the next day in spades. I work full time and wish there was a way not to, but I love teaching. (I work full time as a teacher, plus I'm a fitness trainer.)

It is so nice to see people talking about getting back. It's also a relief to read about the tiredness. That really freaked me out at first. I have never felt this kind of tired!

I am still using a walker, as I lost about 30% strength in my left side and sometimes my left foot decides to have a mind of its own, but even that is better already. Mostly I'm using it for energy conservation. At home I hardly use it, and as long as I get up slowly and don't try bounding across the room, I don't fall any more. I'm hoping next week I can say goodbye to Laverne, the walker. She's served me well (and she's pink and has a seat for my dog...which is awesome), but I'd just as soon bid her adieu!

Last week was my first week back to work and I made three days (Tues-Thurs). This week I made Mon-Wed and took today off with headache and exhaustion, but plan to go back tomorrow. Besides the running, and missing that I think the brain stuff scares/frustrates me the most.

I hope it's okay to join...I'm here in the US and it's been so frustrating to find information on SAH.

I had mine on January 28. I was at a movie theater talking with a friend in the lobby, I turned to walk into the theater with my husband and suddenly WHAM! I got the worst headache of my life. I've never been a headachy person, so I was surprised. We went into the theater and I sat down. The lights were about making me want to scream, I felt like I was going to throw up. I sat head down, hands over my ears and kind of whimpered. My husband said something and I almost said "Take me to the ER". I heard him again and he said "Do you want me to take you home?" and for some reason I thought "Okay...but wait, I can have a headache here or a headache at home and at least then he can enjoy the movie." (He would NEVER have hesitated for a moment if I'd said yes.) Fortunately there weren't a lot of explosions or loud noises in "The Descendants" (although it was haunting later on when I was in the hospital).

Fast forward about 6 hours later and I finally (after trying to sleep off the pain) posted on FB (after turning the brightness almost all the way down on my computer) "I have the worst headache I've ever had. Do you think it's a migraine?" A friend, who is an EMT in New York, text-bullied me into going to the hospital, so I went out and asked Roy (the husband) to take me. Even after I went in I felt like an idiot, thinking that I was overreacting. I sat in the ER with a hood pulled over my head like the unibomber and kept wanting to say "Let's just go."

I was in the hospital for 19 days with a non-aneurysmal sub arachnoid hemorrhagic stroke. The hardest part, at the time, was when the doctor told me she'd be keeping me 10-14 days because I'm EXTREMELY busy. I am a full time high school IT teacher in a technical high school. I run a small business as a personal trainer. I had just started FIVE fitness classes. I have no employees so it's all me and any intern who needs a spot to learn the ropes. I teared up because all I could think was, "I don't have time to be in the hospital!"

I was in a LOT of denial. I literally thought I'd bounce out and get right back into running. I don't recall much from the hospital, but I THOUGHT I was fine and any funky feelings were due to all the medication. They had me on. I remember having horrible spasms and bad headaches.

Prior to this I would get up in the morning at 4:50. My husband and I would work out (okay I would MAkE him work out). I'd go to work as a teacher, come home and run 4-8 miles and then two nights a week teach an awesome bootcamp. On the weekends I coach two running classes; one for new runners so I'd run 2-3 miles with them, then one for marathoners/halfers and I'd run from 10-20 miles with them. Sunday often a race, or Saturday and Sunday a race (marathon or 50k or both). I slept 4-6 hours a night with no problems. At night while watching TV I'd work with one-on-one clients (I do weight loss support for clients around the world). I'd check food journals, set up websites, talk people out of the cookie jar or cheer my brains out for weight loss.

I'm used to having 10 balls in the air at a time. I love LOVE my life. I have a fantastic husband, I am a good teacher, wonderful wife, have a ton of awesome friends, and I had at the height of my fitness, a SAH stroke.

Six weeks tomorrow (Saturday) from my SAH. I am still dealing with headaches (although they are getting better this week...they're still nasty). My brain feels like it "short circuits" all the time. Multi-tasking? Forget it. Exercise? Physical therapy wipes me out (although I'm still teaching bootcamp...some days I can mostly keep up but other days I have to just supervise the class). No running at all. I am walking when I can, but most days I don't have the energy to even do that. I'm learning my gas tank is about 1/4 of the size it was. Even if I feel good, the next day I'm ready to pass out.

I went back to work full time the week after I got out of the hospital and I know it was too soon, but it's a bell I can't unring now because I had to have sick leave donated for the hospital stay and HR won't award me any more (even though I had more than enough donated to me...we're still fighting it). I don't know how to slow down gracefully and bow out of things I'm dealing with.

The support from friends and family is absolutely amazing. I am so blessed. I get that I'm blessed to be alive. I understand it could have been worse. But I'm having a very hard time accepting this "new normal". I want to know how long it will last (I know no one knows that for sure). I am tired of feeling like I'm not really "me". I worry about how long I can depend on the kindness of others. I miss driving, but worry about how tired I get and my brain "rebooting" while driving in traffic. I want to run...I had a goal of a 100 miler and half ironman this summer with a full IM next.

I feel like I'm whining and that makes me feel guilty. I'm home from work today because I'm tired, have a headache, and when I evaluated what day I could miss better; today or tomorrow, I realized I need to evaluate the skills of my kids tomorrow so I'd better be there to make sure they're where I want them to be. That makes me feel guilty. I want to talk about how I feel, but don't want to sound like a whiner. A lot of this has been completely fascinating, some has been wonderful, other stuff has been maddening. I'm just not used to being "tired" like this and I'm still learning how to go about my day without using up all my gas.

Anyhow...that's me in a nutshell and I am so happy to find others dealing with this and am looking forward to insight and wisdom!