VanessaW

Hi David You mentioned that you've had different meds and nothing worked well. I know you had dilaudid which is a similar type of drug to morphine, but did you have morphine or one of its other variants? I was given buckets of morphine which worked pretty well and which I was taking until recently (only had SAH 8 weeks ago). It doesn't sound like you were treated correctly for your head pain initially as the aim is to get the pain under control somehow. I think it is probably not possible to say if this has resulted in your long term problems. In the UK, if a patient has intractable and/or chronic pain, we have pain clinics within hospitals, do you have anything similar there? These are for all kinds of conditions resulting in chronic pain. Sometimes headaches can be made worse by long term medication, perhaps this might be something to examine in more detail for you? It's certainly not trivial. Wishing you the best Vanessa

Kris I really empathise with what you are saying about lack of support. I have had this thought myself, that is for other conditions, there is loads of support out there, which is fantastic. But for us, it is like we are an orphan condition! It is difficult too having had an unexplained bleed; perimesencephalic. As doctor I rather like the word. But why did it happen? I take solace in the fact that my neuro consultant with many years of experience has said that he has only known one person in his entire career to have a recurrence of this, so it is highly unlikely that we will be unlucky twice. This consultant also took the trouble to warn me that I would go through a grieving process much like for other losses in life, with denial, anger, depression etc. He is right and I am glad of the warning. I don't think that people always understand that things we used to do are now more scary and need lots of mental preparation. I am currently working on going on a 45 minute bus ride to a city so I can go out and look round the shops because I am getting very bored 8 weeks after my NASAH. But to me, it is a big deal, will I get dizzy, will I get sick, what will I do if this, if that? and this from someone who used to live in London! Anyway, not sure if this much help, but wanted to say I can get where you are coming from best wishes Vanessa

Hi Andy and Happy Birthday With regard to visitors, I recall that I could only manage visitors for very short periods of time. Some days, I could only do about 10 minutes of visitors as I felt so ill. I appreciated the visits, but when I am ill, I tend to like to just hide away. Fortunately I could just say, I am tired and I can't manage any more and people appreciate that and were not upset at all. This is a situation where the patient really has to put themselves first. Your wife will be treated, as everyone has said, with fluids and the drug Nimodipine to lessen the risks of vasospasm which is where the blood vessels become tightened up. Almost everyone gets some degree of vasospasm because of the blood spillage in the brain irritating the blood vessels. Everyone's recovery is different. I had my SAH 8 weeks ago and this week went out cycling which even a few weeks ago I couldn't imagine being well enough to do. So best wishes to you and your wife, I hope she makes a speedy recovery. Vanessa

Hello all it's 4.30am and as usual I am awake. I know that after SAH sleeping problems are common, but it's making me go a bit mad and seems to have gotten worse lately. I get this sensation in my head after I've been lying down for a little while, it's hard to describe, something like a massive anxiety and swirling/juddering in my head but without me actually feeling anxious. Does that make sense to anyone? Anyway it takes me forever to get to sleep and then I usually wake up a lot. I am really fed up. To make matters worse, I sprained my ankle whilst out walking yesterday. I feel really jinxed at the moment and sorry for myself. I've tried herbal sleeping tablets which don't help and all the usual things to help me sleep, to no avail. Do other people have sleeping issues and what do you do? thank you best wishes Vanessa

Low calcium and vitamin D can cause tingling - have had personal experience of this and the tingling definitely reduced when I supplemented with vitamin D. I can't take calcium supplements as they make me sick, but supplementing vitamin D was enough (it builds up the levels of calcium in your body). Loads and loads of patients are vitamin D deficient nowadays, is so common. Good idea to get tested if your doctor is amenable. Also tingling especially around the mouth can be caused by hyperventilation, i.e. breathing heavily or rapidly when anxious or panicky. Vanessa x

Thank you to everyone who replied. I've gone all out on the ginger products, bought ginger beer, biscuits and crystallized ginger. Have also weaned myself of the morphine pills so that should help best wishes Vanessa xx

Hello everyone, hope everyone is feeling ok and happy today. Not the greatest title for a thread. I am 6 weeks post PMSAH now and the worst symptom I am dealing with is the nausea. It does seem to be worse the day after I do more activity. Despite taking 3 types of antisickness tablets, some days it's really hard to do anything. Yesterday, I felt totally banjaxed by nausea and was 5 minutes into a walk and I had to return home. I can handle the headaches which are fairly mild now and the dizziness which mainly appears when I have walked for more than 30 minutes. But this is starting to really get me down. Anyone have this or any tips to help? thanks and best wishes Vanessa xx

Thank you, that's brilliant, made me laugh, I'd not heard of it before Vanessa x

Hello Pain in the brain, that's a great name! Yes I was under Mr White, it made me laugh because his name is Barrie White and I couldn't help thinking of the singer of the same name. I liked Mr White a lot, he is quite a dude isn't he. I liked that he took the time to explain things to me and also to talk about the emotional aspects of having an SAH. Were you under Mr White? Vanessa x

Thank you so much to everyone for the warm welcomes, what a nice friendly forum this is. I didn't realise when I introduced myself that there was an introduction section, oops!! Happy Sunday everyone Vanessa xx

Hello everyone, I'd like my old life back, I had masses of energy and stamina, I was enjoying being a doctor (during my distinguished 3 and a half week career!), something I had wanted all my life and it's difficult not to be insanely angry about this event. It was hard work, it's a ridiculously hard job, but I was feeling in a short space of time that I was getting on top of it. Actually I'm not insanely angry, just a bit angry at the moment, because these things happen to people, and there's no reason I should be exempt. I am more concerned about what to do if I can't get back to being a doctor. I'm trying not to dwell on this possibility, but I accrued a £70K debt from putting myself through medical school, and as other members have said, money is an important consideration. Oh well, deep breath, put it all to one side and concentrate on getting better and go buy a lottery ticket. Vanessa x

Hello everyone, yes it's Elva Goddard that's running it, they meet every two months now. Next meeting is Thursday 4th October at 6.30pm in the Staff Dining Room, The Restaurant, D Floor West Block, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham. I think anyone is welcome to just turn up and you can take relatives/friends/carers with you also. It's quite awkward for me to get there, so we will see, will try my best as it would be lovely to see some of you there. The email address for Elva if anyone wants it is: casg2005@btinternet.com Hope to make it there Happy Friday everyone Vanessa x

Hello everyone I'm a new member and thank you so much for the warm welcomes and kind words from various members in response to my 'hello' posting. Apologies if everyone already knows about this already, but I just found out a few days ago that there is a SAH support group in Nottingham at Queens Medical Centre (QMC) that meets every 2 months. Interestingly I was at QMC with my SAH and the staff told me there were no support groups. I found out about it by other means!!! The next meeting is October 4th if anyone lives in the area. If anyone wants further details let me know. Also if anyone knows of any support groups near Leicester (my nearest city) that would be useful. Warmest wishes Vanessa x

Hello Bev, I'm sorry to hear you've been having flashbacks, it must be deeply unpleasant. As has been mentioned, perhaps you are experiencing some post traumatic stress disorder - PTSD - apparently this is common after a SAH. It is thought that up to 40% of people may experience it as some point due to the shocking nature of the event. You're not moaning, it's a serious thing to deal with and important that you receive some help. Perhaps have a chat with your GP to try and get the help you need with this. If I find any literature of any help with this, I'll forward it to you. Wishing you well Vanessa - new member

Hello, I'm Vanessa. I'm 48 years old, and fulfilled a long held dream of becoming a doctor this year after spending the last 5 years at medical school. I had worked as a junior hospital doctor for just 3 and a half weeks when my head exploded!! What a disaster; had a non-aneurysm perimesencephalic SAH. During CT angiogram, they also found a small aneurysm which will be monitored. Ironically the SAH happened during a meditation sesion. Obviously meditation is extremely dangerous and should be avoided!! I think I have been very lucky in not losing any obvious function, either physical or cognitive (apart from having a goldfish like memory), but like most people here are battling with the unholy triumvirate of headache, dizziness and nausea. Oh and the gigantic fatigue after doing not very much. My SAH only happened just over 4 weeks ago, so it's early days, but I am really determined to get back to work as a doctor. Some days, it seems such a ridiculously remote possibility, I was working 12 or 13 hour shifts happily running around the hospital, sometimes not stopping to eat or drink. I can't imagining doing that at the moment. Everything has come to such an abrupt halt. It is a real test isn't it...... I am very glad to have found this website and wish everyone here loads of love and strength to get through this experience. Vanessa xxx