a bit about my SAH

[Anne Fleming]

Hello

I'm pretty new to the site though I did put one posting about my distorted sense of taste but thought I would say a bit about myself and my SAH.

I'm 44 and had my SAH back in November 07. I had no symptoms beforehand and in fact woke up in the middle of the night to go to the loo and sitting on the loo I took a sudden pain in my head and could feel liquid running down the inside of my head. I think I passed out at that stage but as I was in the house on my own I must have called 999 as I remember coming round lying in the hall holding my mobile and the ambulance operator telling me on the phone to unlock the door and try to hold on as the ambulance would reach me soon.

When I came round I immediately thought of my mum who had died 6 years previously (aged 78) from a severe sub-arachnoid haemorrhage and I felt convinced this was what I had taken. So when I got to the Accident and Emergency Dept, I told the doctor I thought I'd had a SAH. They must have thought they had a major hypochondriac on their hands. I also remembered I had been told that my maternal grandmother died from a brain haemorrhage at 46 not long after giving birth to my mum though I had never made any connection to the condition being hereditary (though I know it isn't usually), probably since mum was much older when she had it and I never knew my gran.

I had my aneurysm coiled a couple of days later - apparently it was a big one and the consultant joked that it took £11,000 worth of coils to bind it up. I had a couple of other events - a seizure before the coiling took place and a vasospasm a few days later but I got through those and got out of hospital a couple of weeks after the coiling.

For the first few weeks after coming out of hospital I was just so elated to be alive but then then after that initial euphoria, it began to dawn on me that this SAH wasn't something that would take me a few weeks to get over and that it would be a long road to recovery and I began to worry about whether I would ever recover.

Since the beginning of Jan, I've been going for rehabilitation at a local hospital though I'm still ploughing my way through tests on memory and cognitive skills and I'll get the results of those in a few weeks time and then rehab should begin.

Apart from short-term memory and tiredness probs, which seem to be the norm with SAH, I would say the 2 main problems I have are my distorted sense of taste (or sewage mouth as I have begun to call it) and also tinnitus/hearing distortion(I feel another posting coming on about this).

I think the most difficult thing is that the consultants, GP say that they don't know if taste, tinnitus etc will get better but it may do in time and I find the uncertainty hard to cope with as sometimes I can be optimistic and then at other times swing the other way and feel it will never improve.

Anyway, I'm so glad to have found this site and hope I can maybe add something useful from my experience to others.

That's enough for now.

Anne

[Karen]

Hi Anne and thanks for telling us your story.

I've also been left with tinnitus in my left ear. It doesn't affect me too much during the daytime, but at night, when the house is quiet and I'm trying to get off to sleep, it can still bug me. It's pretty annoying and quite scary when I get a change of frequency in it ...... I can only describe it being like an old radio being tuned into a different station. For the first couple of years, I found it very scary, as I had similar, when the SAH initially happened. You do learn to live with it, but mine hasn't got any better or any worse really.

[Shanti]

Hi Anne

Welcome to the site. Just read your story with interest. 44 is very young to have a SAH, but I noticed your grandmother had one and your mother also. All this sort of information must be of interest to the medical profession. I hope someone out there is taking notes. ''

I'm one of the lucky ones, only got a problem with my right eye and third nerve palsy, which seems to be improving slightly with time.

I do hope your sense of taste and tinnitus improve over time. Its early days I guess. (I had my SAH like you in Nov 07). Just starting to get over it a little. I think we suffer from shock quite frankly for a while. There we were going along nicely and suddenly the bottom fell out of our world. Its a big shock to find ourselves post SAH with all sorts of stuff to come to terms with.

I hope you continue to improve. You've come to the right place. Reading on here that others have similar problems does help. You don't feel so alone, especially in the middle of the day (or night) when the rest of the world is continuing on their way without you - or so it seems.They are also a lovely friendly bunch and the sense of humour on here has me chuckling most days. ''

Big hug

Lesley xxx

[jess]

Hi Anne

You certainly are not alone i still get dizzy and the ear thing 5 yrs on mind my 1 ear sometimes sounds as if i am underwater i was 23 when mine ruptured however i have still gone on to have two wonderful little boys. Anything you ever need to know you can pm me or leave a message somewhere on the board i will find it. Jess

[Louise]

Hi there

Good to read your story I too had my SAH same time of year as you but I was still in the hopsital at this stage your at so I think your doing brilliantly well & your getting rehab which helps.....

It is very early days I know that sounds a bit flat but really it does take time......

Hope that you post again soon.....

Take care

Louise.xxx