I feel like I've gotten to know some of you over the past number of months and have found this forum to be most helpful in dealing with the struggles of recovering from a SAH so I thought it might be helpful to others if I added my voice to the unique choir that we all are a part of!
I had just started my winter holidays with some Christmas shopping, relaxing and singing in a choir concert the night before my aneurism decided to bleed. The next morning, I woke up early to have some breakfast before going for a yoga class. I had just finished my cereal and went to the kitchen to put the bowl on the counter and suddenly I felt something strange in my head, and looked up at the clock on the oven and noticed that I was seeing double. It was 7:35 in the morning and I immediately thought "this is not good" and turned to go talk to my husband who was sleeping at the time. I fell to the ground unconscious, but strangely, I could still hear everything that went on. I heard my husband calling me from the bedroom, him running over to me and checking my vitals before calling 911. Thankfully the ambulance arrived in 5 minutes, and by the time they got to our house, I was starting to wake up. I remember they asked me a number of questions, and to move my arms and legs - I couldn't move my legs and immediately I thought "I've had a stroke!" I didn't panic - for some strange reason I knew that it may not be a good thing to do that the moment. When I fell, I had hit my head on the kitchen table or chair, so they strapped me to a board to make sure that I couldn't move my head. I don't remember having a bad headache, but became quite nauseous once the ambulance started moving and any bright light hurt my eyes. I kept them shut the whole day! I also started experiencing altered consciousness - felt more like I just couldn't stay awake.
It took a CT scan at the hospital to verify that I had a basilar tip aneurism with SAH and had a shunt installed to help with the building pressure on my brain. I wasn't told any of this until much later so I didn't know what was going on, but didn't really care as I was really out of it at the time! It was 5:30 pm by the time they got me into the operating room to install the stent and coiling. It went really well, and I spent the next 2 weeks in hospital (no fun being in hospital during Christmas!) with relatively no complications. Like most people here, I was sent home with very little information other than resume normal activities as can be tolerated and a number for a nurse in case I had questions.
I too was in a bit of denial at the beginning, especially when friends and co-workers saw me and thought, well she looks just like before - there's nothing wrong here! Even the doctor suggested I go back to work by the beginning of February! I thought that was a bit crazy, but tried it by the middle of March. By then I was getting headaches only once every 2 weeks and thought that I could handle it. Boy, was I wrong!!! My office was insistent that I work 4 hours a day, 5 days a week and it was just too much. Lots of dizziness and the headaches returned, plus the fatigue was constant. I did go to my GP to check my iron levels to find out that I was very anemic so I assumed that was why I was dizzy all the time. My insurance company has been great and they were okay with my going back on disability so I've been home ever since April. My doctor didn't like the news that my headaches were back, so he moved up the 6 month review to 5 months and added an angiogram to the MRI. It was exhausting, but everything looked good. Went off the Plavix and one week later I had a strange episode - almost fell over and lost strength in my right leg - I thought I was having a mini-stroke as it lasted only a minute - another evening in the ER only to be dismissed as possibly having an ear infection! Fortunately, my doctor suggested that I get another MRI just to be safe - and it was clear.
June came and went - started to increase my activities, and by July I was walking and biking every day - started to really feel like myself - iron pills had done their job and I was getting my energy back. In the middle of July, all of a sudden I started getting episodes like the one in May - I feel like my body is being pulled to the right (sometimes it is pulled to the left) and I can't walk straight and it was happening 3 to 4 times a day, and then I had some episodes of double vision - these really scared me. It never seems to last more than a minute or 2 and then things go back to normal. I've been to see my GP as well as the surgeon who operated on me. I'm now waiting to see another neurologist to try and figure out what the problem is.
Today is my 8 month anniversary and I am so thankful that I survived. After reading some of your stories, I have learned that I need to listen to my body and pull back when I'm pushing it too much, but somedays I wonder if I'm pulling back too much - hard to find that balance. Has anyone else experienced similar symptoms after months of feeling better?
Thanks!
Kathryn