boywithcap

Thanks everyone for the replies and suggestions. It feels so awesome to have a place where I can talk about the SAH to people who understand. Yeah Carl I wish the doctors would check this place out as well. I remember the neurologist saying that maybe one or two out of a thousand of their patients have NASAH. I think I'll just focus on my GP being my main doctor and just let the neurologist do whatever neurologists do. I guess for some reason I thought he (the neuro) would guide me through this and have a bit more to say than the same old "you'll be fine, see you in a month." As far as whether blood was on the scan, I'm just going to try to let that go for now. Less stress, right? Anyway today's a new day and I'm just going to get this CTA done and then relax.

Hi all. Yesterday was my first visit with the neurologist who's care I'll be under, and I'm a bit upset about the visit and I guess I need to talk about it some... There were 4 different neurologists during my hospital stays, but I hadn't seen one "on the outside" yet. I was ready for the appointment and had all my questions written down so I wouldn't forget anything and my fiancé was there with me for support. But then he came in and right away said that I had a diagnosis of SAH but no blood was ever seen on any of my CT scans. Well my jaw dropped and we said that we had been told differently and he left to check on it. That's when I just kind of shut down. You see I've had numerous issues with doctors contradicting each other over and over and this "blood on the scan" thing is one of the worst. It has been a point of contention ever since this all happened to me, but I had finally got what I thought was a definite answer that, yes, there was a small amount of blood visible on my last CTA scan. So for him to say otherwise just really upset me. I guess it doesn't matter so much medically since they still know I had a hemorrhage from the lumbar puncture test results, but for some reason it's important to me to know if any scan has actually shown blood on my brain or not. Plus, I feel like my condition has been minimized by some of my doctors. You all know probably know the story... I was just kind of sent on my way with basically no support whatsoever after my 10 days in the hospital: "Here's your pills, your chance of re-bleed is basically nil, go to the ED if you need anything." And since there's not been any aneurysm and I don't have any obvious disability, the blood being seen on the scan kind of meant to me that it's real, that I do have a serious condition that deserves to be treated as such. Whether it's rational or not, that's the way I see it. I mean I don't want to be sick and I am so grateful that I have a good prognosis, but I do want my condition to be treated seriously. This is the most dangerous health problem I've ever had. Also I'm just tired, just really, really tired.. and I can't deal with this again, with doctors telling me a different thing every time I see one. Anyway, from that point on I wasn't really present, and I just kind of nodded and smiled as he said I should be fine in a couple weeks as long as my next CTA shows no aneurysm. He said my symptoms are the result of me having the "perfect storm" of SAH, stress, and being on meds; and that storms fade away. My facial tic will resolve, my memory will get better, personality changes will reverse, I won't have a re-bleed, and the headaches will get better. I just listened as he said that soon the only remnant of my SAH will be a higher level of susceptibility to future headaches. I asked about work and he wrote me out until the end of the month. He'll call after my CTA and I have a follow-up in a month. I just said ok and went home. He was very nice and seemed like a good guy, and I hope he's right and I'm better soon. But in my heart I know it's not that simple. I'm beginning to think that maybe neurologists are just concerned about structural damage to the brain, and that since mine is not measurably damaged, then, in their minds, I have no reason to have any problems. I don't know, maybe that's all they're supposed to do. Sorry to ramble on, but I just needed to get that off my chest. Thanks for listening.

So sorry, I edited my original post and it disappeared. Maybe it has to be approved again? Hopefully it will be back soon. Thanks for all the nice replies... and Sarah, I'm far from Picasso status, lol. Maybe I'll upload some pics one day, mostly I just paint trees so far.

HI Tim. I'm new here as well. I recently had a NASAH. I can totally relate to not feeling alone anymore.

Hello. I'm John and this is my introduction so you can get to know me a little bit. I had a SAH on April 1st, at the age of 37. So far it's a non-aneurysm, but the doctors tell me they might be able to image any hidden (by blood/clots) aneurysms during my CT scan with dye next week. The past three weeks have been a crazy mix of fear, changes, insurance lessons, pain, love, health care system triumphs and failures, tears, drugs, gratitude, tests, fatigue, and hope. Right now I'm very glad to be home from the hospital. I'm not sure when I'll be cleared for work, but hopefully it won't be too long. My biggest symptom is an ever-present headache. It fluctuates in severity in reaction to light and my activity level. I'm on meds but I haven't found that balance of pain relief and being able to function yet. One med works pretty well but it completely knocks me out and I'm fast asleep within an hour of taking it... Also, I have developed a facial muscle tic and have weakness on my left side. The weakness is not too bad and I don't even really notice it and the doctors think it will get better rather than worse. Another symptom I have is personality changes. Some of these are pretty marked, but overall they are positive changes so far, so I am just going with them. I have a desire to paint now, which I have never done in my life. I bought canvases, brushes, a palette, the whole nine yards, and set up a little area in my extra room to paint. According to my family and friends, I'm considerably more verbal, emotional, and affectionate. Personally, I feel the same but I trust that they are telling the truth. Finally, I have memory issues sometimes, with a hard time finding the correct words and having to have people repeat things when we're talking. edit- how could I forget the fatigue, must have been too tired to remember-ha!, but yeah I get soo tired and worn out very quickly if I'm over-stimulated or concentrate really hard or just do too much... once I've over done it I'm pretty much finished for the day. Overall I feel like I'm in a decent place emotionally and spiritually. I have accepted the SAH as best I can and am not dreading the future. Although I'm a little freaked out about the headache lasting forever and the possibility of more neurological symptoms presenting, I'm grateful to be alive and to have as few symptoms as I have. I realize it could have been much different. I'm glad to have found this community. Reading through some of forum over the past few days has been such a great comfort to me. Some of the posts have been so spot-on that I could have written them myself. You all can understand what's happened, and happening, to me in a way my family, friends, doctors, and nurses just can't. I love my family and friends, but I needed to find this place and now I can breathe a little easier and relax a bit more knowing that you have walked the path ahead of me.