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stroker

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  • Biography
    27 years old, living in Japan and will be looking after my girlfriend who had a brain hemorrhage (intraventricular, not SAH tho) March 1st.
  • Location
    Saitama, Japan
  • Occupation
    Teacher
  • SAH/Stroke Date
    March 1st, 2012
  1. Saori has the cyberknife treatment Wednesday and was discharged from hospital the next day! Couldn't believe the quick turnaround! 2 years before the treatment can be said to have been 100% effective, but chance of a re-bleed in the interim very low apparently. She's improving noticeably day by day in terms of headaches and memory. Only thing she's finding difficult is her perception of time. Says that if she's with me, it's fine, but when by herself after two minutes it will suddenly seem like 10 hours have gone by. Did any of you experience that?? Thanks again for all your support eh!
  2. Thanks Carolyn, WinB143 and Kel! Such a caring lot on this website, helps a lot. Saori didnt have the cyberknife treatment Monday as was said, just a whole of scans and preliminary tests. Today is a public holiday in Japan, so I guess it will be tomorrow. Communication not really a strongpoint in the medical profession here. Thank you very much for the link though Kel, will definitely check that site out.* And 3 litres of water a day eh! I'm going to go on another fattening up mission soon: GOMAD (gallon of milk a day) so might make a contest out of it!
  3. Thank you everyone for your warm welcome and your advice! I hadn't heard that about water yet, that's very useful advice, as is putting me on to *Stoke of Insight, thank you! Will check that out tonight and will be sure keep you posted with how she gets on tomorrow. Tiredness and fatigue certainly look like they're going to be big issues, but will make sure she's taking it easy, (which won't be easy). Sense of humour definitely still in tact: she was telling me just before that I should be the one having Cyberknife to fix the funny shape of my head. And I thought these traumatic, near death experiences were supposed to make you a nicer person!? I have been blessed with a lot of support through all this, but being able to hear from people who have been through this themselves and actually KNOW what it's like really means a lot and helps me understand what its like for Saori, so thank you so much for taking the time to write to me.
  4. Hello everyone. My name's Jordan, I'm 27 and my girlfriend, Saori (also 27) had a brain hemorrhage March 1st this year. She is Japanese and we live here in Japan, just outside of Tokyo. It's been a difficult couple of weeks to be sure, with language and cultural barriers adding to the difficulty for me, so I am really glad to have found this fantastic site and hope to get lot's of advice about supporting Saori over the next weeks, months and years as we start our life together. Saori had an intraventricular hemorrhage caused by AVM, *as opposed to a SAH, but couldn't find a similar forum for her particular condition, so hope many of the same things apply and that you'll still have me!! (I don't suppose there are hemorrhage cliques?) Her speech and motor functions were not affected and the doctors have said she should make a full recovery. The main issue so far has been pain. The doctors refused to give her anything stronger than ordinary paracetomol and scantily at that. I think this was mainly to do with the stigma in Japan around opiate based drugs and the stupid idea that she might become an "addict". She had to suffer the most excruciating agony I have ever seen, or even heard of to be honest, while the doctors waited for the blood in her ventricles to drain away naturally and told her to "be quiet". I had to watch her literally screaming and wrything in absolute agony for 5 consecutive days and nights before it stopped; I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like to be her. For a country supposedly so advanced, many of the hospitals here are simply shambolic. The first hospital we rushed to was filthy, swarming with cockroaches, stank of human waste, and was staffed by absolute p****s (for want of a better word). Japanese doctors can be arrogant at the best of times, but especially to a "foreigner", and my questions and concerns were met with sneers, distain or ignored outright. After a bit of a battle, her Mum and I got her transferred to a top neurological centre down the road. I was horrified when they said they'd continue the same course of treatment though, but by the grace of god her worst pain passed soon after arriving. Fortunately, Saori also has absolutely no memory of that time and is improving noticeably day by day. Today she was teasing me about my receding hairline and the size of my forehead, so it obviously hasn't affected her personality (unfortunately!). The staff at the new centre are completely different too and infinitely more kind. Saori is to undergo a non-invasive procedure on the ruptured vessel called "Cyberknife" [ http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberknife ]*this Monday (19/3) and the doctors have said she will be discharged shortly after. I'm looking to get as much information as possible to help her from then, particularly what lifestyle adjustments and also what pain medication might work well for her to import in to the country if I have to. Nice to meet you all and よろしく "yoroshiku" as they say over here!
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