Guest Ember Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 Hey everyone! I had my first visit with my neurosurgeon today. Things are going well and she has given me the ok to work from home over the next three weeks and to drive if I want to but only if someone else is with me. I have an MRA in three weeks and if it's clear I can go back to work full time as I feel ready. A lot of things make sense to me now that I have talked with her. I had been told by (?) someone in the first ER that I had a cherry sized bleed near the brain stem. She told me that I didn't have a "cherry sized anything" and that I had 3cm thick layer of blood throughout the whole subarachnoid space. This is why she was so conservative, keeping me for 10 days in ICU etc, because the pictures of my brain looked like a classic aneurysm although my symptoms and my neuro status pointed to the non-aneurysm SAH. According to her, a typical non-aneurysm SAH is a small bleed usually in the brain stem area. I had blood all through. This has helped me understand my hospital stay a lot better because truthfully I kind of thought she was overracting. She still does not think I had an aneuryism (mostly because I healed without any surgery or intervention) but she said she needs to be very conservative and sure because if it was an aneuryism than catching another bleed before it happens is important. She did say that at a month out, even if it was an aneuryism it would be unlikely that I would bleed again. She wants an MRA in three weeks, another in six months, then yearly for three years. She also told me that the pain I had in my back and legs the week after I went home is classic for a "sterile meningitis" from the blood draining down the spinal cord. It got better each day all on it's own so I didn't call her. She said that was ok. Anyway. The news doesn't change how I'm doing things day to day at all, it just made a lot of things fall into place for me. She apologized that the situation wasn't made clear to me. I wonder if they didn't say everything because they didn't want to stress me out in the first three days, or if the first scan at the first ER showed a smaller bleed and by the time I got to the other place it had gotten worse? I'm requesting my scans and reports from both hospitals so maybe it will make more sense to me. I'm not upset, just wondering why my understanding of the situation was so different than what was actually going on. Thats my report! Going on five weeks out and doing well. Thanks for listening! Love! Ember Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 Hi Ember, You must be really pleased with your progress and great news about the driving! At least they've clarified a few things for you. I too, had the awful back and leg pain, a couple of days after my bleed started.....it was worse than the pain of giving birth.....but they also explained to me that it was the blood draining out down the spinal cord. Hope that you will keep us updated as to your progress. Take care, Love Karen x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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