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introducing myself - debbiecopco


debbiecopo

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hi everyone ,

i had a bleed on the brain which resulted in coiling on 8th june this year. THE biggest shock of my life! i was out with friends and suddenly felt like someone had stabbed me in the head i then fell onto the road. i went unconcious and friends called an ambulance. i was scanned the next morning and had the operation without delay.

since leaving the hospital my recovery has been good , i havent had any loss of feeling anywhere or stroke symptoms. i had double vision at first.

its the headaches and dizziness that i have still got. my mood swings have been awful too, and i dont think my family fully understand what ive been through. my older children age 20 and 22 think that now im home im better! back to normal! i am very emotional and cry at the slightest thing.

i am due to go for a scan in november, but i feel i would like one sooner as i dont feel right, i am worried about re-bleeds etc. does everyone feel this way? i said i was going back to work next week, but have since rang and said i cant yet. how long do people usually have off?

sorry for waffling on but i am very concerned about a lot of things....any advice please???????????????????????

thank you for listenenig.xxx

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Hi Debbie

Welcome to BTG and hopefully you will find it as useful as I always have. The feelings you have at the moment are perfectly normal and headaches and dizzines are par for course in the first few months. Emotions are also closer to the surface so tears and laughter can happen at the drop of a hat.

What type of procedure did you have coils or clip???? I was clipped and returned to work after 7 months on a phased return but found it extremely tiring for the first few months. I did try to return to full time hours but after 18 months of increasing finally reduced back to 20 hours as this is the best work/life balance for me now.

Wishing you well in your continuing recovery and look forward to hearing more from you.

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Hi Debbie & welcome to BTG

You sound very very normal to me right down to the mood swings & the fear of another bleed. It's so ahrd once you are discharged to accept that one day you have alll the nurses in the ward looking after you & the next you get nothing, I found it very hard to accept. iflinch at every twinge, neck pain or eye paun i get worryoing that it will happen again.

The headaches & dizzness & over whelming tiredness are all classisc SAH symptoms & you will be told that rest id important so take the advie (I didn't initially & paid the price after a too busy weekend!) from people who ahve been there.

If you check out Karen 78's latest post you will see that 6 months on things are much the same & people just seemt to 'roget' how ill you have been becuse you look ok on the outside. Unless you've been through SAH you can't begin to iamgine how we feel post op whcih is why BTG is so great.

I hope you continue to get better & recouperrate at your on pace.

I was clipped 3 months ago & am still exhuasted a lot of the time (might have something to do with a certain 4 year old boy tho!) but am lucky in that my headaches aren't too bad. The diziness is still the same or slightly worse for me but then I have double vision which is slowly getting better.

take care

Gill

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Hi Debbie,

Glad you found this site as I am sure it will make you realise that how you are feeling is very common following a sah. I expect you left hospital. like many of us on here, without being given any information about how you might feel afterwards. Not knowing what to expect as pretty standard feelings following a sah can then make you worry unnecessarily.

I think you will find from reading the stories of others on here that what you are experiencing, although not welcome, is very normal.

The length of time to return to work varies so much between individuals - I returned after 5 months and I didn't have any physical disabilities or suffer with headaches or dizziness - if I had I doubt I would have returned that soon. Certainly don't rush back - there is no point in returning until you feel the time is right - going back too early could possibly set you back.

I think it took me about 12-14 months to stop crying at the slightest thing - I'm sure a lot was to do with my family's lack of understanding and expecting me to carry on as before which I tried to do for a while but my brain/body couldn't keep up the pace so now instead of carrying on regardless, I opt for a snooze. Despite reporting in the Green Room today that I felt full of energy - by 3pm I was asleep on the sofa! I would suggest that you try and relax when possible and try not to worry too much. I think the fear of another bleed is also something that is feared by us all - I have even given up worrying about that on a daily basis now and that's despite having another unruptured aneurysm in my head. I think time helps with so many aspects - I wish you well in your recovery and don't forget to use this site as and when - it is a great place to feel you are not alone with your concerns.

Sarah

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Hi Debbie oh you poor love it's such early days for you, I really feel for you. Head aches get better in time and all the other symptoms too but you need to rest and give that poor brain of yours time to heal.As for the fear of another bleed, I was exactly the same,it was quite a few months before I relaxed and trusted that it wouldn't happen again.Do read some of the stories on here and you will feel less alone with your worries.

I send best wishes and look forward to hearing from you soon.xxx

Edited by maggie
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Hi Debbie. Glad you found this site...it is so very helpful to know you are not alone and the things you are feeling are normal after what you've endured! It's very frightening once you're home and left with all these feelings of not knowing what may happen next! It's been almost 9 months since my sah, and I am just now beginning to have some days where I don't have headaches and actually feel pretty good! It can be a slow process for our brains to heal, but you'll get there. My daughter is the only one in my family who really seems to understand how I'm feeling, and thank God for that! She was w/me at the hospital 24/7 and then moved back home for 6 weeks while I was recuperating. Hang in there and know that all the people on this site are here for you and wishing you well!

Carolyn :biggrin:

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Hi debbie welcome to btg. Try not to worry about the headaches and dizzyness i suffer with that too only itsess frequent now. Just rest when you feel them and drink plenty of water. Look forward to hearing more from you. Jess.xxx

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Hi Debbie

I was off work for a total of 12 weeks following my SAH 11th Dec 09, so 11 weeks after my op I was back at work! This is a relatively short time off work I have been told since. I was initially given a months sick note from the discharging hospital (not my operating hospital).

I did do a phased return over a couple of months in the end before I was able to do full-time again.

I initially had some numbness and tingling, usually in my left hand and foot, but also in my mouth and tongue, and when I mentioned this at my follow-up appointment (which I arranged 6 weeks after my op) they then booked me in for an MRi scan, which I had 10 days later. This showed nothing had been damaged (but I did have to chase this up after a few weeks to get an answer! I was told I would get a follow-up appt but that didn't happen).

I would suggest contacting the Neurosurgeons secretary to see if you can make a follow-up appointment, or contact the hospitals PALS (Patient Advisory & Liaison Service) who will be able to do this for you. They have email addresses for these. I found mine online.

If you are feeling anxious and have any symptoms then speak to your doctor. A lot of my initial symptoms were put down to anxiety and part of the Post Traumatic Stress I was (and in some respects still am) experiencing.

I was very concerned about re-bleeds, because I felt that if it had happened out of the blue the first time then it could happen again. But I have read in publications online that re-bleed rates are very low (I cannot recall how low but I believe it was under 1%).

Having had counselling sessions this has greatly helped to reduce my anxiety and I would recommend speaking with your GP or Neuro consultant for referral.

It is hard to believe that you will ever get back to anywhere near normal (pre-SAH) but things do get better. I will be 9 months post-SAH tomorrow and am back to work full-time, trying to get back to the gym 3 times a week, but usually do 2 times, and back to a new normal. I think I have now accepted that I will not get back to the me I was pre-SAH, but am happy with where I have got to so far.

Take care

Kel x

Edited by KelBel
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