People in Pain

Brain Aneurysm – Wife

My wife suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm on Oct 5th, 2009. Came out of nowhere. It was as good as 99% over. I begged the surgeons to do the clipping operation, even though I was told she would be paralyzed and suffer from brain damage. We just moved to Norway a few months earlier (both English) and had plans to start a small business. We did that. We also have a son, who was 5 at the time this happened. I had no family support here but naturally, my parents and in-laws promptly arrived. I was devasted and was emotionally out of control.

The first 2 weeks were awful. There were many times when she almost went. Vasospasms. Lung infection. High temperature. Stroke. She was only 42 and I was just 38. Been married for 10 years and we had everything going for us; I love my wife and son and yet everything was falling apart. I become emotional and extremely sad when I think back to that day… and the evening before when we were both watching a dvd and had planned the following day ahead.

Nearly one month in an induced coma. Woke up but had all the text-book symptoms. Paralyzed on her left side. Unable to speak. Unable to drink or eat. Confused and staring into space. I spent nearly every day crying… seeing my princess in this weakened state. After a few weeks she smiled when I entered her hospital room. Her longterm memory was okay; she squeezed my hand, using her ‘good’ right hand when answering my questions. Eventually I had to tell her as she whispered for information. I will never forget her face when I told her. The tears and heartache.

Her short-term memory was shot too pieces. Cognitive defects were severe. She went to a rehabilitation centre. She was aprt from me and our son for 6 months. We made regular visits each week (ywice a week) and had to drive an 8 hour return journey. My business struggled to keep going. It was awful having our son see his mum this way and to answer his questions.

Time passed and she can now walk without any aid and can speak to about 80% of her normal volume. 9 months on and she has only just had the feeding tube removed. She is thin and weak but can drink and eat. Her left arm is slowly getting better, and she has come a long way. Her cognitive deficits remain the challenge and she suffers badly from a lack of concentration, attention, judgement, initiative, perception of time, problem solving, forgetting things and even motivation. She is extremely tired ever so quickly.

I am grateful for her survival, and I could live with the time told to me for her to slowly improve. Maybe even 5 years. But… I was just told that she has another aneurysm on her left side! Only very small… 3mm and that this became known the day after the rupture back in October. I never knew. The experts say it hasn’t grown and that monitoring is the best policy for now.

I know she has another ‘time bomb’. Treatment might harm her much more and leaving it is also a bad option. I cannot tell her (not yet anyway). It will destroy her rehabilitation. It will totally sink her. The risk is 1-2% per year of rupture because she now has ‘history’. I can’t go through this again.

Please, please help us by praying for her. Her name is Michele. She is a wonderful wife and mother and I just do not understand why this has happened to her. I want the other aneurysm to just disappear. I want her back. I want to see her happy. I feel so bad for her, and I will do anything to make her feel good.

11 Comments

  1. felicia 7/22/2010
  2. felicia 7/22/2010
  3. Wale 7/24/2010
  4. josef 7/26/2010
  5. Michael Campion 7/26/2010
  6. ev4304 7/28/2010
  7. Michael93s 8/21/2010
  8. Mike 9/18/2010
  9. hannah 10/29/2010
  10. Carla 11/29/2010
  11. Esther 2/27/2019

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