Did you feel any symptoms b4 hand? This is one of those things that terrify me.
Yes! I just didn't know what it was. Here's a timeline.
02/01/12: Around 7 AM, I had a "weird migraine" wake me up out of my sleep. I had just been in attendance at one of my good friends' father's funerals the day before, and I thought maybe it was stress related from that, but this headache was different than anything I had ever felt. It was in the crown of my head and it had an electric sensation. I can say it felt like a lightning strike (not that I know what that feels like, just the sensation was different) because it was so sudden and odd. I've never had a headache wake me from my sleep before. I got up, told my mom (I was still living in my family's home at the time) that I had a "weird migraine," and was going to take some Tylenol and go back to sleep. I had to work at 9, so just took 2 extra strength tylenol (good thing I chose that type of pain reliever and not an NSAID) and laid down until I got up to go to work.
02/01/12-02/04/12: This same headache from the 1st waxed and waned in intensity throughout the days. I didn't go to the doctor because I had been having headaches for years before this, I genuinely had no idea that it was the beginning of an aneurysm rupture, as this was when it began to leak. I remember that Wednesday night (02/01) I told my friends "stop making me laugh, it makes my head hurt so bad" but I still didn't think much of it.
02/04/12: I took some ibuprofen, drank a caramel macchiato and was at work from 9-5. In the past, an NSAID (Motrin, Aleve)) and caffeine have helped take the headache away. I even said "hope this takes away this wicked headache," not knowing there was a danger lurking in my brain. I remember telling a co worker "I just feel out of it, like I'm not really here or something." That evening, I went home, took a bath, drank 1/2 a beer, took Advil cold and sinus (NSAID and psuedoephedrine), and was in my bed texting friends making plans for the Superbowl (Sunday 02/05) when I got upset about something, stood up, and passed straight out. I remember falling, and my mother heard this loud crash. She ran into my room and told me that she saw me all contorted with my left side twisted up, I was seizing and gasping for air. She flipped me onto my stomach in case I started vomiting, and ran to get my father. He was in the garage working on his car.
I don't know when I came to (how long I was passed out beforehand) but I remember being pissed at the medics telling them "this is so rude, you just came in here and woke me up. I was sleeping." They told me "No, you passed out. What happened? How are you feeling? What do you remember?" For some reason, I remember this part of the night, but nothing after the exit to the hopsital when I was in the ground ambulance. Maybe it's a neuroprotective thing that I don't have a memory in the ER or anything else for 9 days. I told them "I have had a headache, I drank half of a beer (it was still sitting on the floor where I put the bottle down) and took a bath trying to relax, but my head still hurts" then I just started vomiting so much. I was burning up, and very embarrassed. I'm actually a very private person, so I kept apologizing to the 3 medics and my parents in the room. I kept saying "I'm so sorry, I don't know what's wrong, but my head hurts really bad. I just want to go back to sleep. Y'all can leave, and I'll just go to sleep. I'm so sorry." My father is the one who told me "You need to put on some warm clothes and go to the hospital, there is something wrong with you." I said "No, I just want to sleep." He is the one (thank God, and may he rest in peace) that made me throw on a sweat suit and some shoes to go to the hospital. I still thought I just had a weird headache until I stood up to go to my closet. I couldn't walk! I lost all control of the left side of my body, and I had to hold myself up against the wall to walk to to the closet. It was 15 steps away from the bed where I had been sitting, telling my story. I was internally panicking but I told myself "don't freak out, that won't help. Something is wrong. If you just get dressed, you can go find out." I somehow got to the bathroom right down the hall, got myself dressed, and a female medic had the gurney in the hallway ready for me to get on. I told her "I can walk, I'm okay" but she made me lie down. Thankfully she did, because I was really out of it.
I remember them driving to the hospital, the exit taken to get to the hospital, and hearing "that's her mom behind us." And absolutely nothing after that, nothing at all. But I was still conscious. I'm the one who gave the triage nurse and doctor my story, I walked to the bathroom with the help of my mom and sister (my sister was working in the ER that night) to get the urine sample. But I don't remember any of this at all.
Come to find out at a followup with my neurosurgeon, that headache I experienced on 02/01/12 is a "sentinel headache" which is a warning headache. It's because the aneurysm was leaking blood, but not fully ruptured. It's often described as a thunderclap headache, which fits in my experience. It's a very weird type of headache.
it's not funny at all, but this just made me laugh! Yes, I was diagnosed with PTSD and severe health anxiety afterwards, for which I saw a therapist (and still do see him sometimes) for over a year to work on coping techniques. I don't remember the pain, because I was kept in a medically induced coma most of the time (Propofol controlled sedation, and they could turn it on and off) but the only reason I have these "memories" is because of how detailed my family was in keeping my journal, and how open they and my friends were with answering my non stop questions of "what happened to me?!" I have a very strong need to know, and not even my "brain exploding" could stop that. The pain I do remember was the incision, the electric like shocks shooting through my scalp as the nerves tried to heal, and severe, severe migraines. Oh my God, sometimes I literally wondered why I didn't just die.
