Coiling 5 years ago

General
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Hello, i had a ruptured brain aneurysm 5 years ago. Till this day i still suffer from memory loss and dizziness almost every day.

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Welcome Hannah! I’m in the ruptured group as well and it can be a test of patience. Seems in my early years post rupture many things were a huge challenge. I’m 11 years and a few months out and things can still be a challenge, some days worse than others. Having memory issues as well, what I was taught to do is put everything in my calendar on my phone like appointments. I put two alerts in for me if I need to go somewhere. I set alarms in my phone as well, mostly for the dogs medication. ST also suggested a variety of different games, the only one I’ve been consistently doing is sudoku. Reading has helped as well for word recognition. I was an avid reader prior to my rupture. When I had my lengthy stay in NSICU, my best friend brought in an easy to read mystery and I had to ask anyone going by what a word meant. I gave up reading for awhile and just got back into a couple years ago. Though it can hurt my eyes being on an electronic device, I just have to highlight the word and the dictionary gives me the definition. Free books are abundant on the internet so it doesn’t hurt my drastically reduced income.

I get “lost in my brain” sometimes and don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing. PT told me to change positions every 15 minutes and change tasks every 30. I definitely struggle with that as I can’t seem to get anything done but it’s not allowing me to get fixated on one thing.

As for dizziness, make sure you’re staying hydrated. Don’t know if you’ve been doing much reading on here, so I’ll share my Neurosurgeon’s mantra “hydrate, rest, eat protein, hydrate some more, repeat.” I have to practice this every day.

I do have a question or two, have you contacted your surgeon? Do you have a neurologist you see for following you? Either one or both should be told about the dizziness and your memory issues. Perhaps they have some tricks up their sleeve they can teach you. Also have you been told your aneurysm is occluded? Hang in there, things do get better with a whole lot of patience as it seems we take one step forward and three back more than we want.

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Yes, i have had angiography done every year for 5 years. The surgeon says everything is perfect. Neurology says the dizziness is due to changes in blood pressure, and that i should not get up too fast, but im trying to get a second opinion of that.
I also have anxiety and mood changes. Does this effect you?

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I’m not having any BP issues, unless I’m in pain. When my BP is high, all my docs ask what hurts? :joy:. It’s helpful to be able to stay with the same ones so they get to know you.

I do not like spontaneous changes to my schedule, I have to know ahead of time. I can get very angry very quickly if someone is using innuendos or I catch them in bald face lies and they don’t accept responsibility for their words. I talk too much but not as much as I did before the stent. These may seem minute; however, they are literally 180 degree turn from how I was prior to rupture. I used to be in a high stress job working with families and didn’t bat an eye at anything in front of those individuals. I’d weed my garden or do other things outside when stress got to be too much.

Now I have what we refer to as Sergey’s pill which is for anxiety. I rarely need to take it and it’s the only thing he’s prescribed to me. Can’t remember if he prescribed it for me because of my reactions to all the trades coming to our new house or because of one of our nephew’s wedding. We knew his younger brother had proposed to a wonderful young woman. But the elder nephew doesn’t like when his brother does something he hasn’t, and I don’t much like her. It was a spur of the moment thing and we got told just a week out. Both their parents are dead and BH being the next eldest likes to do things for them that their parents would do (rehearsal dinners and such).

I do know Sergey told me to start carrying two on me at all times and our wonderful Handyman/licensed electrician and his wife will suggest I take one when needed or they’ll engage me in some conversation to help me. These instances often times come up when I forget to do my relaxation breathing techniques which is odd because it’s my normal way of breathing since the ‘70’s. I highly recommended relaxation breathing. @FinWhaleFan has a very good one on box breathing. Hopefully she’ll see she’s been mentioned and provide the link or you can search for it under her name with our search feature.

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I’m here! :smiley: (Slowly getting my act together this a.m., but I am here!)

@Hk1208, I actually knew about box breathing before my rupture, but clearly I did not use it enough! :rofl: :rofl: You certainly don’t need any video to practice it, but - to me - the image of the forest is a beautiful plus.

You can my find my favorite box breathing video freely available on YouTube.

I heard anecdotally that Navy SEALS also use this technique which has 4 stages, just like 4 sides of a box. 1. Breathe in for a count of 5. 2. Hold for a count of 5. 3. Breathe out for a count of 5. 4. Hold for a count of 5. Repeat as often as you need.

It is my favorite as it is easy to remember when you (e.g.) are getting an MRI, or the few minutes before they roll you into the operating room. That being said, there are many other breathing techniques out there, so if this does not work for you, there are others to explore. As an example, I once learned about “Bee Breath” which was very effective for me! However, do I remember either it or how to do it when needed? Nope. :smiley: (Rupture impacted my memory for sure (!!), and it is MUCH better than immediately post-rupture, but not quite what it was…)

@Hk1208, during this journey I was encouraged to take up meditation/mindfulness. Yes, I was one of those easily anxious, busy-busy … well … bumblebee (!) pre-rupture. I am definitely a calmer, much less anxious person afterwards; I don’t know if you can attribute that to a different perspective on life post-rupture, or mindfulness or something else, but meditation/mindfulness has definitely helpful for me to curb the anxiety. I have a number of programs/apps that I use (e.g., FitBit or my phone’s “health” program), but my favorite is a free app called Healthy Minds, available for both iOS and Android. It intermixes meditation practices with neuroscience lessons, so it is an East meets West kind of program. I am fascinated by all things “brain” post-rupture, so I like the mingling of the two - you get the best of both worlds!

Sending you healing thoughts and peace!

Fin Whale Fan :whale:

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Thanks so much! I knew you’d reply!:clap::clap::clap:. I think it’s probably easier to see a video for many of the members. I like East meets West too, I need to get out my phone and download that app, :crossed_fingers:I remember to use it​:rofl:

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