You've had a stroke......

Those were the four words that came out of my husbands mouth last Monday night as he looked down at me in the hospital bed.  All I could do was wrap one arm around him and cry.

I woke December 11th with a bad headache localized to the right side of my head.  It was relentless day after day and nothing was making it better.  An MRI with contrast on January 3rd revealed a right venus angioma (malformation of veins in a localized area of my brain) which ruptured and caused a bleed to the right frontal lobe.  Hence the cause of my headaches.  Because the vessels looked suspicious, neurosurgery wanted to take a better look to make sure there was not an arterial component to the malformed structure.  In short, arterial involvement has increased risk in comparison to veins alone.  I underwent a cerebral angiogram (very similar to a cardiac cath procedure where they run a catheter from the groin, past the kidneys, past the heart, and to the carotid artery and inject dye to get a better look at the vessels) last Monday.

The prep for the test and the test itself went off well.  I was a bit nervous but everyone involved was highly reassuring and calm.  I was partially sedated for the procedure as there were times in which I had to following commands (i.e. take a breath, let it out, now take a shallow breath and hold for .....).   Some things I remember but most of my memories are foggy.

I do remember waking in a recovery room and feeling like something was wrong.  Over a period of time I was apparently complaining to Nash and the nurse of sensation disturbances on the left side of my body, numbness in the right side of my face, and wavyness in my right visual field.  In addition to these symptoms, I was vomiting frequently and had severe head pain.  After confirming that I was awake enough to trust in what I was reporting and that it wasn't just the effects of coming to from the sedation, the neurosurgeon sent me for a STAT MRI.

Unbeknownst to me, the neurosurgry team was sitting with Nash revewing the results of my MRI before I had even returned to the recovery area.  Upon my return I continued to get sick.  Nash was glued to my side and attentive to my every need.  When thingss calmed and I layed back in the bed, I looked up at Nash and said, "What is wrong with me?  Do you know?"  With his reddened eyes he just looked down at me and said, "You've had a stroke."

Too sleepy to continue.....more to come.....but please don't worry.....I am on a rehab unit and doing ok.