A Pop In My Head
My name is Sherri Adair. I am 43 years old. I live in a small town in Nebraska with my new husband of 10 months, my 16 year old son Eric, and my 7 year old daughter, Carlie. I also have a 25 year old daughter, Heather who lives and works in Omaha and a 20 year old daughter, Megan who lives in my town with her fiance and son Kahleb who is 1 year old. I am a co owner of a readymix concrete and precast concrete products business that I inherited from my father who passed away a year and a half ago. I work with my two sisters.
On the night of July 13,2000 when I was getting ready for bed I felt a pop in my head followed by intense pain. This continued all through the night. The next morning I called my sisters at work and said I wouldn't be in. I wanted to go to the doctor but didn't think I could manage going and sitting in the waiting room. My sister called me back and said she had arranged for me to go in and go directly back to see the doctor.
The doctor came in and I told him my symptoms including the pop that I had felt in my head. I told him that I wondered if it was an aneurysm. He actually laughed and said, " If it was an aneurysm I guess you wouldn't here right now." Thats all he did besides sending me home with a perscription which really did nothing for the pain. I called my daughters finance's father who is a ER doctor for a second opinion, however I didn't tell him about the pop in my head because the first doctor made me feel silly, like I was imagining it. He came over and gave me a shot which helped a little bit but the pain continued through the weekend. On Monday evening I had my husband take me to Emergicare. This doctor gave me a shot which helped for a little while. Then I started vomiting and continued through the night. My daughter talked me in to coming in to her clinic where she works as a Medical Assistant. They gave me another shot and told me that if wasn't better in the morning to come back in. The doctor that I saw wasn't in the next day so I saw a different doctor. This time I told him about the pop in my head preceding the pain. Right away he sent me for a CT scan because he said he thought it could be a bleed. The CT scan looked like it could be a bleed so he sent me straight to the hospital for a spinal tap.
My husband and daughter took me straight to the hospital where I met my neurosurgeon Dr. Treves. A spinal tap was taken revealing blood in my spinal fluid. Then an ateriogram was scheduled for the next day. I was awake for this so I immediatly saw the aneurysm when they showed the xrays.
My doctor explained the surgery to clip the aneurysm, but he wanted to wait because he was worried about vasospasms. Surgery was scheduled for Monday. However on Saturday morning I was getting ready for a shower. MY mother was with me when I grabbed my head saying that it hurt. She told me to lay down. She said she saw my whole left side droop so she went to get the nurse. She thought that I had had a stroke. What happened was the aneurysm ruptured again. They rushed me to surgery. I don't remember anything about that day.
The aneurysm was successfully clipped during a four hour surgery. Then I was kept in a drug induced coma for a few days. I spent 10 days in ICU then was moved to the rehab floor. I spent another 24 days on rehab getting physical and occupational therapy. I had to walk with a cane and my first goal was to get rid of the cane before my 25 year class reunion that was the weekend after I got out of the hospital. At first I wasn't allowed to walk alone. I couldn't even go to the bathroom without help. My mother and my husband took turns staying with me at night so I would have help getting up. I got out of the hospital on August 25, 2000. It felt so good to be home, sleeping in my own bed again.
I continued out patient therapy in my home town for about 6 weeks before they released me. My only deficits are left side weakness. At first my arm and leg were numb. Gradually it started to tingle, then turned to pain mostly in my foot and hand. My doctor said that my brain is sending false signals telling me that I feel pain. He started me on a new drug that is supposed to block those signals. It is better but not gone.
I guess this is something I will just have to learn to live with. Sometimes I get depressed because I feel handicapped and it is hard to accept that I am not the same person I was before the aneurysm.
I am trying to build the strength in my hand so I can handle babysitting a very squirmy, busy 1 year old boy. This is good motivation.
I would like to hear from anybody with the same problems and feeling that I have been experiencing. I have been reading these narratives everyday but it has taken me awhile to do mine because it is hard for me to type because my left hand doesn't work very well.
Discussion, comments, or questions: Sherri Adair
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