Hi Lemon and y’all. My name is Patty and I live in South Dakota. This post brought tears to my eyes because I too am new and scared. And I don’t want to be scared. I hate fear. It’s like a monster that will grow every time you feed into it. A little information about me and I will try not to ramble.
I started getting headaches so I went in to get checked out. 20+ years ago I got headaches and they had found two small aneurysms. We chose a wait and watch And a few years later, they told me they were just gone. OK.
Recently (last fall) started getting headaches again, so I went in to get checked, figuring that the aneurysms had come back. They did and they brought two buddies with them.
Two of them were very large and the one on the left side of my skull needed to be addressed pretty quickly. I went in for an angiogram, so they could get a better look at it, and attempted to coil it. Unfortunately, it came out and entered the bloodstream. So they stopped and went after the coil to retrieve it.
They were able to, but as they were pulling back out, and passing through my heart area, Something broke off near my heart and caused a stroke paralyzing my left side. I was in impatient rehab for a while and thank God I recovered pretty quickly considering. But we still had the aneurysms to deal with.
March 24 I went in to the hospital to have the left artery coiled and stented so that it could not come back out like it did the first time. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what it did again. Again, they were able to retrieve it, and they aborted the coiling procedure temporarily since they had not yet been able to stent it.
A few hours later it burst, and I was rushed to ICU. I won’t go into any graphic details, but it was rough at first. But they saved my life and I spent seven weeks in the hospital. I am home now. All things considering I am doing pretty well.
But I still have the other risky one on the right side of my skull. And like Lemon I’m scared. I told my doctor I don’t think I can go through this again. He said for right now we’re not gonna do anything except watch it. I go back in about six weeks for an MRI to take a look at it and the one they fixed. The other two are very small, according to him and not a huge risk right now.
It is so hard to not think, well what if this one bursts? Especially while I’m at home alone. Years ago, I had a small cerebral hematoma, and it felt like I had been shot in the head. So the thought of this one bursting terrifies me. And I don’t freaking want to live like this, in fear.
I’m also trying to understand all the symptoms and limitations or whatever you want to call them as a result of the first one bursting; The tiredness, depression, fear, etc.
So I looked up symptoms and stuff on the Internet and that’s how I found you guys. And I’m so grateful that I did! Any advice or suggestions that you can give would be Godsend.
God bless you all, I will be praying very hard for all of us. Thank you for allowing me to join you.