Hi there everyone. I am writing you all tonight to give you an update as to the condition of my wife. For those who need a little history, here is the story as it happened on October 30th. More below...
We were discharged from the hospital on Monday the 9th. The stay was less than desirable at certain points, but we don't need to get into that now. What I am really concerned about is that we left the hospital with no real answers. What I mean by that is that there is no known cause of the stroke at this point. CT scans and an MRI revealed a hemorrhage the size of a tangerine(approx. 4.2 cm at its widest by 3.4 cm) covering an area on the right side of her brain. We were in the hospital for approximately 10 days(don't even care what the bill is)and even the doctors are frustrated about this. A Neurologist, neurosurgeon and several other medical professionals have been on the case. I fully trust their opinions on where we should go from here, but I am only saying all this because I want and need your advice and opinions as well on the matter.
The professionals are insisting that we focus on the good of the situation and that consists of the fact that she is stable, improving little by little with each day and not deteriorating. The most recent CT scan done on 11/07/09 revealed that the area of blood had lost more than 40 percent of its original size. They were astounded that almost half of the original bleed was reabsorbed within a week of the initial stroke. We are scheduled to do a follow-up MRI within a couple of weeks to a month to see if there is anything under the mass that may have caused this. many of the possible causes include but are not limited to; lupus, metastasizing cancer from another part of the body, birth control hormones, family history(have none since she was adopted), and a few others. Most of these possibilities are not very likely and right now, all signs point to this being a spontaneous bleed, which is good and bad news.
The good news if this is spontaneous, is that all of those above listed causes can be ruled out and she doesn't have any of those. The bad news is if it is spontaneous, then we probably won't ever know what the hell really caused this and I will forever worry that it could happen again someday.
I have a very important question for all those stroke survivors out there. Since well before we came home, she has been suffering from nagging severe headaches, many times causing debilitating nausea and vomiting. Sometimes, things are good and sometimes not. It's like a roller coaster. I guess my big question is,
"Has anyone else suffered major headaches as a side effect or after effect of the stroke? Is it particular to brain bleeds or more prevalent in clot-stroke victims?"
It has been difficult to find info on headaches in stroke victims out there. I just need peace of mind that I am doing the right thing by keeping her home with these headaches. When she doesn't have the headaches, it is wonderful and she can be up and around, but when she has them, the world absolutely stops! Please, someone tell me these are an after-symptom of the bleed. The docs have reassured me that this is so, but I need to know from you all as well.
Also, I have searched, in what little time I have, for a young stroke survivors group but have come up empty. Does anyone know of a group like that out there?
By the way, thank you everyone for your previous outreach to my wife and I. She was in tears as I read the comment thread from the last post to her. I look forward to your thoughts and suggestions.