I had a ruptured aneurysm in October 2017 which was coiled. In February 2018, my followup cerebral angiogram showed that the aneurysm was gone and everything was exactly what my neurosurgeon was hoping for. However, as time has passed I have noticed a number of possible after-effects that I am not sure whether they are a result of the aneurysm rupture or possibly something else.
For example, in the summer of 2018 I started to notice that I am very sensitive to hot and cold. If I have toast or a bagel in the toaster, I cannot take it out barehanded as my fingers feel like they are burning off. Even with gloves and boots on, my hands and feet are always cold when I am outside of my house in the winter. My skin also seems to tear very easily â we got a puppy in October, and anytime his teeth or paws are near my arms I have wounds but nobody else does. And the slightest bump causes me to bruise (I have been off the blood thinners for almost a year).
I know that I have been told in the past that it can take months or at least a year for lingering effects to settle. I am just wondering if anyone else has experienced the same types of things a year or longer after successful treatment or if I should be checking to see if it is something else. I do not have medical coverage right now so do not want to incur any more bills than I have to!
My aneurysm ruptured in April 2018. I have several after effects similar to yours. I canât stand bright lights, loud noise or loud music, and being in public or anywhere there are crowds of peopleâŚitâs all too chaotic and it sets off blinding headaches. I no longer like some things I used to enjoy, and I canât stand to see any sort of graphic images on televisionâŚwhich never bothered me before. My neurologist, who I see regularly, says it can take years for normal to return, or this just could be my new normal. I feel like I am a different person.
turkris63, hoorah for the successful coiling! Normally Iâd suggest a check with your family doctor, no insurance makes that rough.
For me, Iâm pretty much cold now with any strong stimuli. When itâs my feet or hands, usually my feet seem to be affected now more than the rest of my body, I drink water. For some reason, hydrating seems to help 90% of my issues. If Iâm able to be at home, I get under a thick blanket and have a dog or two cuddling with a hot cup of tea. Iâve been told that it may likely be aging.
A new pup, how fun! I had issues with skin tearing easily. I ended up with 7 stitches in an arm that rubbed against a small nail. Eventually they figured out that it was most likely from the contrast dye. Their suggestion was to âstay hydratedâ. Thereâs other medications that can cause thisâŚmight want to check with your pharmacist if youâre taking any medications. The pharmacist wonât charge you. Also I started using a good bit of lotion which seemed to help. Wash my hands, put lotion on; sitting on the sofa, I put lotion on.
You might be able to go to your patient portal and send your Neurosurgeonâs team these questions. The triage RNs have always been more than helpful and if they werenât sure, theyâd ask my Neurosurgeon. This was at no cost to me. Good luck!
I too had my coiling in feb 2018 and am experiencing the same except the tearing of skin. Im always cold, bruise easy, hate loud noise and hate crowds and use to love being around people, i have spikes of anger and my hair is thinning i was told it is cause by the dye. I have been going thru so many changes and its hard to get a grip around things. I go in next weeknfor my year angiogram. Wish me luckâŚand good luck to you
It has been 8 years for me. I had a brain aneurism that ruptured. Sensivity to light and noise etc are part of my life now. I have noticed that when I am tired, these are worse. I have so much to be thankful for, as my aneurism was on my cerebellum so âonlyâ my balance and stamina are affected.
I am over 4 years post coiling/stent for a Basilar tip unruptured aneurysm which post angiogram showed was 100% gone.
Certain colors and lights will trigger âsnakeysâ which are light flashes that wiggle like a snake from either the right or left eye and lasts about 3-4 minutes. Red type and floruescent color backgrounds seem to trigger them after reading for more than 30 seconds.
Will this go away? Donât know. It hasnât yet.
Also, my brain seems to be a weather barometer now. I will get a headache a few days before rain which is almost constant [pain level about 1 when it starts; to 8-9 when it rains] and goes away when the rain stops.
I had a Ruptured Aneurysm 2017 I have another one That the Doctor is keeping a eye on. I also have a Shunt. But noises OMG! The worst for me is the cars that go by with the Bass full Blast the pain is Crazy! Have you noticed that there are things you used to love to eat that taste nasty to you now.?
Not so much taste, but textures! I used to love corned beef hash, and love the smell of it cooking but the minute it hits my mouth I want to gag! Mashed potatoes is similar but not as bad â yet I can eat a baked potato with no problem!!
4 days after mine was coiled, I was craving chocolate really bad. After the nurse told my daughter that chocolate was not going to hurt me, she went and found me a candy bar. When I took the first bite, it tasted so sweet that I spit it out! It took me almost a week before I was able to eat it! Now sugar and chocolate do not bother me at all!
When I first woke up Nothing tasted good. They tried to get me to drink ensure or something like that and I was Like GROSS! Would Make my husband drink it.lol
So apparently When I woke from my coma i was not the easiest person to get along withâŚlol
I had an unruptured aneurysm surgery back in 2013, I still have balancing problems, Migraines, and other side effects. they first few years were the most difficult. I went to several specialists neurologist, cardiologist, ENT, psychiatric, sleep disorder; but no one can diagnose what was the problem. Each person is different and some have more problems than others but there is no test that can accurately detect what is the root cause, for years I went to many doctors hoping to get better and return to work but nothing works 100%. After 6 years I try to manage my symptoms the best I can with the medication I have. I had so many tests done that to my head, MRI W/ contrast, MRI w/out contrast, angiogram, CT Scan, EEG. I hope you get better, sometimes the medication gives you some nasty side effects too, I stopped taking Depakote for the same reason.
good luck
YES! I have noticed that some foods taste odd or unpleasant now. My biggest problem is memory and concentration. I canât read anymore ( and I literally have hundreds of books) because I canât follow the story, my mind wanders, I canât concentrate, and canât remember what I read 3 seconds after reading it.
Hey there! I love how the doctors will tell you âyoull be able to return to your normal routineâ shortly after surgery. That is not always so. I had coiling and stents put in june of 2016 after i had a bleed found after the worst headache in my life. My annies are about an inch and a quarter behind both eyes so every day is STILL different for me. I still feel like a shell of what i used to be. Noises, especially rhythmic, loud bangs, car sirens, and amusement parks and strobe lights send me panicking. I carry ear plugs, and sunglasses with me at all times to help me not freak out. Some of the new normals for me are not great, but ive gotten past the point of hiding what happened to me, im open about it now and accept there are things i just cant do anymore. I wish i could blow up balloons or kids water toys for my kiddos but i cant. It puts too much pressure in my head and causes intense vertigo and nausea. I had ocular migraines 4x a month on average, and aweful 4 day long migraines for over a year, but those eventually faded and i dont get them as often. Its going to be 3 years in june since my bleed.Anyways, thats prob more than u wanted to hear, but just know that each of us have some leftover effectsâŚsome may go away with more time and others are here to stay. I wish you luck!! Your strong and brave and rocking recovery!
Other than my anger issueâs (I seem to get angry a bit easier since my successful clipping in 2009), I, too, am hyper-sensitive to heat & cold. My neurosurgeon thinks that is mostly due to aging. Face it gang, most of us are over 50 (Iâm 60) and our skin gets thinner. Tie that along with the fact that we can bruise over nothing! Youâve noticed how the elderly will often have deep bruising after merely getting blood drawn? Thatâs what is starting to happen to us! Hair loss? Also, aging. The correlation between contrast dyeâs and hair loss, is too insignificant to make a difference in most of us. True, there will always be some who it affects more than others, so itâs not out of the realm of possibility. My only other bothersome issue, is when I go into a dark place. My aneurysm was on my optic nerve, and apparently their are some residual collateral affects. I feel almost totally blind when I walk into a dark room. Itâs very unsettling, and I need to get a light on quickly. I also get dizzy, âout of the blueâ, and am having some balance issueâs but that may have more to do with the two ânewâ aneurysms. I go back for an MRA at the end of Feb., or beginning of March. I will say, that I was only out of it for 6 weeks after having 8 clips put into my head. I force myself to do things I donât like, and over time, itâs all gotten âmore normalâ. I encourage you to not let fear control you, and to do the things you are reticent about. (i.e., crowds, tight spaces, difficult lighting). Where at first it caused major discomfort, I now feel more like my old self, than ever before. And the ânewâ diagnosis? Well, letâs just say I surrendered this situation to God, and I believe He is the Great Physician! Iâm expecting a CLEAN MRA in a few weeks!
I am so happy to see that I am not the only one with concentration issues! I realize that I am 56 years old but I went from being able to read an entire book in a day to it taking me weeks to read one (if I can stick with it long enough to make it through)! My mother is about to turn 78 and she is still able to read like I used to! And filling out any kind of paperwork is a nightmare because of my concentration! I used to fill out paperwork for others who could not do it themselves â now I do good to take care of my own! Yet according to the medical world, I am fine because that balloon no longer shows on my followup angiogram!
Hope your MRA gives you great news Ms. Peg! Your story reminded me of Trouble, our old lab. She was about 13 ½ when someone poisoned her. Until that, she showed no signs of slowing down, luckily she lived long enough for me to credit her with saving my life the next year. We are kinda like that old dog. Something serious happened and we were stopped long enough to figure out we arenât as young as we used to be. Desensitizing our brain to the loud noises and the lights can be daunting but with effort it works, as you pointed out.
Hi Sparky,
I had a ruptured annie that was coiled in Jun 2016 and again in Sep 2017. I have the same issues as you. It is slowly getting better as time goes by. I keep earplugs with me all the time now (or my wife does for me - thanks for her). It used to be that if I was in a crowd and they suddenly broke out into applause I would lose it and could sometimes drop to the floor⌠with blinding headache etc⌠couldnât go to the movies without earplugs and would have to cover my eyes if it got too hectic on screen. It is getting better, I still carry earplugs and I am still sensitive to light but not as much. Next year will be better
Cheers
My ruptured aneurysm was coiled about ten years ago, when I was in my late 30s. Like everyone else here I am very fortunate to be alive and doing as well as I am. I used to read all the time too and still try to but itâs hard to make it through a single page when I keep re-reading sentences. Itâs not just my memory that gets in the way, but now my brain tries to analyze every sentence and I tend to misinterpret simple phrases, often believing that the book has a typo before realizing I am just misinterpreting a simple sentence.
Iâve found that audiobooks are tremendously helpful and still enjoyable. I may not remember a lot of what I hear in the audiobook, but I am able to experience and digest all of the content.
Looking on the bright side, I can watch movies over and over again now without getting bored, still surprised by the jokes and twists.
I had a grade 4 SAH in 2013. Never had a headache. My husband of 5 mos. just âhappenedâ to stop back by the house between errands. I was unresponsive and having the seizure at the time. First hospital didnât have the equipment to help me! They gave me a 3% chance of making it to another. In a coma for 7 days, 31 days in ICU. Drs. told my husband it was so large a bleed that he would probably have to be my caregiver for the rest of my life! God answered prayers. I do have short term memory loss, anxiety, insomnia, AND it destroyed my appetite! I donât get hungry and forget to eat sometimes itâs 3-4 pm until I realize I havenât eaten all day. Having no appetite, you donât want to shop, cook or eat, even when going out. Bright or flashing lights cause me to cover my eyes, even on TV. I live in Vegas and canât attend most shows on the strip. An important note: Aneurysms can be hereditary. My uncle dropped dead at 28 from one. My daughter has always had migrains. After my coiling the neurologist recommended MRAs for my sisters and kids. My daughterâs MRA showed a tumor behind her right eye, exactly where MY rupture happened. My coiling was 9-4-13 and her craniotomy was 3-20-14. Important that family be checked. It saved her life! Re: anxiety, insomnia, and loss of appetite, I find medical marijuana helps best with no chemical side effects. Thankful I live in NV.
