SAH with no known cause

[showell]

A good friend of mine suffered with a terrible headache for three days and then went to the hospital and had a MRI and was told she had a SAH and was immediately taken and admitted to the Neuro ICU unit. Upon admittance she was cognitive and knew everyone and what was going on around her.

About 4 days later she was moved to PCU and we thought things were improving but sometime during that night she was moved back to ICU because they said she was restless and anxious. Within 5 days she did not know who she was, she did not know who her family or friends were, she did not know where she was or what was going on. The doctors said she had a drug induced psychosis due to the high dosage of steriods. Due to this the steriod dosage was slowly reduced and she was put on cellcept.

She stayed this way for 2 more weeks and then was moved to a rehab hospital where she slowly began to know things again but still could not remember well and her speech was ragged meaning she couldn't have complete thoughts put into words or sentences.

During the next three weeks she received PT, OT and Speech therapy. She made some improvements. She is down to a low steroid dosage. She also had no found aneurysm but did have brain spasms. What I want to know is did the steroids cause all of the cognitive problems, does she have brain damage from the brain spams and will she recover? The doctors say there is no reason she won't recover fully but I want to know if the order of events is normal with a SAH or did something go wrong during that week before she went into the drug induced psychosis.

No visitors were allowed that week. I would really like to hear from others who have been through this and or family or care givers who have been through it. My friend is only 42.

Edited November 15, 2013 by penny
Paragraphs/line spacing inserted for easier reading

[Karen]

I'm really very sorry to hear about your friend, but there isn't anybody on this site that is medically qualified to give an opinion or offer a prognosis as we are just a support group. xx

[kpaggett]

keep supporting your friend through whatever she has to go through. There is no way to know the answers to your questions. I do know that support makes a world of difference in recovery of anyt type, so if you can, be there for your friend. From your post, it sounds like you are.

~Kris