Eating and Drinking/Vomiting

[Tom Nguyen]

How many days after the ruptured aneurysm plus coiling and vp shunt, do you starting drinking and eating close to normal without vomiting or afraid of vomiting?

[Skippy]

Hi Tom

 

This is a hard question to answer as everyone is different.  I stayed in hospital for a total of 4 days and really couldn't stomach anything for a week.  It was the headache that caused me to lose my appetite rather than the vomiting.  

 

Try eating little and often and foods that aren't too creamy or rich.  Toast lightly buttered helps me when I'm ill through sickness (not SAH related).  The fear of vomiting will cause you to be anxious about eating and then you get into a vicious circle, so try the toast and see how you go.  Try to avoid dairy products until your vomiting subsides too.

 

Please let us know how you get on.

[ClareM]

Hi Tom

I didn't have a ruptured aneurysm but had an EVD for a week. I don't think I ate much at all while in hospital,  I vomited a lot in the first week. I clearly remember talking to my brother and 10 year old niece and then saying, 'Now I am going to be sick, Anna may want to leave!'

 

I lost over half a stone in 2 weeks and one spoonful of yoghurt was a meal for me. It took a long time to get my appetite back but by the time I got home the vomiting had more or less stopped. That was after 2 weeks.

 

As Sami says eat little and often. Eat what you fancy and sip your drinks. I found if I ate too soon after moving about that I felt sick, so maybe rest a while before eating..

 

Keep us posted, hope you feel ok soon

 

Clare xx

[Daffodil]

Hi Tom, like Clare I also had an EVD placed initially after bleed and coiling  and then later I went back in for more surgery and had a VP shunt placed.  Post my SAH the nausea and sickness was bad and I lost a huge amount of weight like Clare reported as my brain was using all the calories to try and heal but I was hungry and keen to eat despite that. 

 

 After I had my my VP shunt placed the sickness post operation was off the scale and that took a lot of time to settle down and I had to have anti sickness medication sub cutaneously for quite a while.

 

What was important was not allowing myself to get hungry so having a meal Even if I wasn't keen on eating, I also drank those build up drinks to keep up my calorie intake.

 

The  shunt surgery is pretty invasive brain surgery and you lose a lot of CSF when they do the procedure you have the abdominal incision  too which disrupts things as well and the piping is placed, well it's a lot for the body to get used to.  I had a few months to be healing from my bleed before surgery but to have the two together must be a double whammy,

 

When I have had  low pressure CSF effects either after a lumber picture or as I did post my surgery  then that always brings extreme sickness . If vomiting continues and there are other symptoms as well then it's possibly worth asking the shunt experts at the hospital to discuss if you have the right setting (if the valve is an adjustable one). What's right for one person may be too low for another, that was definately the case for me.

 

Basically ask lots of questions, continued vomiting is not good and needs to be managed, nausea is harder as it puts you off eating and of course that's what we need t do most. So lots of what you do fancy but 'normal'  could be a way off yet. 

[Winb143]

I do not remember a lot but my Daughter said she saw a yoghurt pot by the side of my bed while in hospital and that made her happy.

 

My Family brought me up Jaffa cakes, and I bought them up over a visitor  !!  (So I am told)

 

I was greedy hence the weight, so I ate anything that was put in front of me.  (they said)

 

See Doc if you are feeling sick.  Get it put on your records.  No stressing also.

 

Good luck

Winb143..Cannot eat as fast as I used to  xx