So it has not been that long since my now husband has been home from the hospital, he had his aneurysm rupture on March 18th and was home by April 14th. He is doing great, amazingly great, he finished his outpatient physical therapy to get his strength back and he is working on his speech therapy to get his cognative thinking skills back. Everything else is great his memory and all of that is great, the issue now is his pain. He constantly has headaches, I try to give him peaceful time to himself which is a little difficult with a 6 week old baby in the house.
I am so frustrated though because we went for another checkup with one of the neurologists and when we said he still has horrible headaches the doctor just said well you shouldn't still be having them. I tried asking what he can take or what he can do to relieve the pain but the doctor did not really give us much help with this. His family physician just gave him norco for the pain but when he has a limit of 2 a day and it takes 2 of them to take the pain away for part of the day what is he to do with the rest of the day. I hate that he is on a narcotic for the pain and it honestly doesn't seem to be working very well. He is starting to get angry and yell a lot because of the pain so I am just trying to see if anyone else knows of something better to help with the pain. any Tsuggestions would be appreciated.
Hi Heidi, I am touched by your story and the fact that you are also caring for a 6-week old baby as well. I had my Annie clipped March 18, 2008 and one thing that frightened me was intense pain. The doctor placed me on Topamax and I’ve been on it (every day) for over 2 years. I didn’t have much luck with other meds but this seems to be working.
That sounds kinda funny. I suffered a a rupture of my anterior communicating artery Nov, 2009. The Doc (bless his heart) told me that I could suffer headaches for 6 months. He explained that part of it had to do with the amount of blood that had leaked. I have NEVER had headaches like what I felt. I did find that warm showers relieved them for me. I was taking 6+ a day. I was fortunate that mine only lasted for about 4 weeks, the two weeks I was in the hospital and two weeks after. I get paranoid now if I do get a headache.
Of course you mileage (or hubby's) may vary. My prayers and best wishes to you and your family.
My wife and I just got back tonight from her second visit to a Headache Center in Philadelphia. Like your Husband my wife had a ruptured aneruysm with emergency clipping in 1994. Her Doctor today made a statement that as I'm reading your case could be of help to your Husband. He said, if he could have seen my wife very early in the headache cycle after the headaches started (and he mean't the first few months) he felt confident he could have broken the pain cycle. If you live in the USA on the East Coast, maybe you might want to try his advice and schedule a visit ASAP and see if it can be nipped in the bud.
I might be able to give you some more advice if you can tell me whether your Husband had a clip or coiling procedure. The narcotics are really not a good solution for these types of headaches and there is a tendency to dependence and rebound headaches. Let me know and I'll try to be more helpful.
My husband had a coil done and he had to have 2 angios for vasospasms and he had a small stroke as a result of the whole thing but the stroke is not really a big issue now that I can tell at least. It's just the headaches and the anger due to the headaches. I will try looking for some type of headache specialist because we live on the west coast and thank you for the information. I am so frustrated right now we went to his primary care doctor today and he pretty much told him that he is just going to have to live with the pain because he does not want to prescribe anything. Really! It's not like he didn't go through something that can cause headaches and he's just complaining of them to get pain meds geesh! Thank you for the help!
In some patient's a stent is placed in addition to the coiling. In your husband's case he apparently did not have the stent placed. I'm wondering if increased blood pressure could be contributing to the headaches. My wife was just placed on blood pressure meds (even though she has low blood pressure as measured at the office 100/65.) Although her Doctor (headache specialist) did not mention anything about it, my wife and I are thinking that maybe during the course of sleeping she may be having a blood pressure spike. If this were to happen to her and possibly your husband, the blood vessel where the coil is located would sense pain because the vessel has limited ability to stretch further due to the increased pressure. Blood vessels have nerve ending so such an occurance would make sense. The trouble is this is all speculation simply because no one has the financial incentive or the time to research these problems.
Try asking his GP if he can try blood pressure medication such as toporol (sp?). You might also ask him if he can dispense something like a Maxalt or Imetrex migraine abortive medication (but these need to be used with a abundance of caution because of rebound headaches and other side-effects.) I also have one other thought that I'll write back about later to you. It deals with an issue that we know triggers my wife's headaches and migraines and it might be helpful for your husband.
Heidi, blessings and congratulations on your six-week old... your hands and emotions are overflowing...
Expect you will get a tremendous response here on pain... particularly on headaches and/or pressure...
I am only aware of a few on this site who have not had pain/discomfort, disability to live their normal lives and return to work. They were/are so blessed...beyond words...presumably meet published stats...and, not real-life experiences found at this site...and others...
When neurologists rely on published stats, and not joining this, and other, sites, they cannot expect to be as highly educated as their Board Certification relies on... i.e. published stats... vs reality...
Please remember, I am a non-degreed, non-licensed, survivor...
Prayers to all of you for your hubby's recovery...
I suffered a right AChA rupture Dec. 5, 2010 and the headaches were like none I had ever experienced. My Neuro prescribed Fioricet for them, and it worked like a charm. The headache would come and the fioricet would make it go away. By mid to late February the headaches stopped altogether. I was lucky. It sucks to hear it, but the headache will be there until it's not there. What I had to come to accdept is that there is no definitive timeline when it comes to recovering from a rupture. We all recover in our own way and in our own time... and that is okay.