I thought I was one of the lucky ones, that my success story wouldn't have an impact or give any hope or anything to anyone, because I was soo freaking lucky. And it was luck and every so often I check in here thinking I have nothing to contribute, but today I was checking my emails and instead of skimming over the emails from the Brain Aneurysm Support Group I decided to log on and read some stories and so here I am.
Mine ruptured on April 3, 2013. I had just spent the weekend in Savannah, GA at my childhood friend from Ireland's wedding. Had been feeling off the entire weekend but put it down to the drive up there from Miami and back with two kids fighting the entire way. I knew I had high blood pressure but thought I could control it all on my own with diet etc. On the 3rd I was in the kitchen at work and had a sudden tremendous headache. I went to an empty office and lay on the floor for about a 1/2 hour until it subsided enough to get myself back to my desk to make an appointment with my chiropractor (have had issues since a car accident many years ago which can sometimes bring on headaches through the strain on my lower back). Went to the chiropractor and had myself adjusted and went home, got dinner for my two boys and went to bed. Lost Thursday. I know I got my boys out to school, went back to bed, got their dinner but other than that, the Thursday was lost to me. Friday I woke up feeling like I had the flu, called in sick, got the boys out to school, back to bed, dinner. Saturday I felt OK but had this nagging headache the whole time and just did pretty much nothing. Sunday I woke up the same as Saturday but with this nagging headache the whole time so I called my neighbor and asked her to take the boys while I drove to the ER.
Where I was admitted with crazy high BP and after a couple of scans a ruptured annie.
I was freaking out, my ex was in Ireland visiting family and not due back until the next day. They were saying it didn't look good. They did an exploratory angio on the Monday morning and afterward I don't even remember contacting anyone but the word got out and bless him the ex was there straight off the plane and took over bossing the doctors about and moved right back in to take care of the boys. Bless my awesome surgeon too who laid it out for me in my befuddled state and made it perfectly clear to me what my options were and what the outcome of both would be. I'm practical, I totally opted for the coiling. In my mind, I was halfway dead already. To this day I'm still so clear on our conversations.
So the Tuesday morning they did the coiling. I woke up so clear minded it still amazes me to this day after all the stuff I read about people who suffer stroke like symptoms. Of course I was befuddled with painkillers and anasthesia but I felt really no different as a person.
I would be telling you a lie if I said I had no effects. I was discharged from the hospital after three days in ICU...I was anxious to get home to my sons and my pets and to be able to sleep without someone poking or prodding or taking BP every hour. I think I slept pretty much 20 hours out of the day for about three weeks solid. I would get up with the kids going to school, back to bed, get up for coming home from school, back to bed, get up for dinner. My social interaction was pretty much zero.
It took pretty much a whole year for me to get back to normal. When I needed to sleep I REALLY needed to sleep and my friends knew that. If I was visiting someones house I would let them know I might need to lay down and sleep and many times I took advantage of that.
Other than that, everything has been great. I went for a whole battery of tests (damn insurance doesn't cover everything so it cost me $2k) in April this year (2015) and everything is hunky dory. I have my BP under control thanks to an awesome cardiologist who has been working with my neurologist,
The most amazing thing to come out of all of this is my outlook on life. I still have a very stressful job but it's not the end of the world to me if I fuck up and the most important thing is that my bosses all know what I have been through and know I have my priorities and my priorities are me and my family.
Love, Love, Love.