I
know you're all eagerly awaiting the story of my husband's follow-up
appointment with the neurosurgeon after his procedure to have his
Subarachnoid Aneurysm repaired! I am presenting this to you in blog
form though it is actually an edited version of the post I made on
facebook to close friends and family. This has been a crazy time in
our lives. My children, myself and my husband know that the story
we've lived for the past few weeks is so far fetched that it is
difficult to believe. I doubt I could have made this up. Remember,
I'm big on karma and I'm talking about my husband's life! One thing
to note is that early on a doctor told us if you hear someone
complain about or experience “the worst headache of my life”, get
to the hospital. Severe headaches that are beyond the pain of migraine
headache pain are a tell tale sign. Here's the rest of the follow-up
story:
My
husband drove to the hospital for his appointment. I was the
passenger. He did well with his driving but since I have spent the
past few years being a drivers ed instructor I am still adjusting to keeping
quiet. I'm not perfect but think I did fairly well.
We
go into the doctor's office and he gives his name to the girl at the
desk. "You're not from around here", she says. We're from
New England. We're in Atlanta and have been busted immediately! We
go into the small talk about us not being from here and she's
thrilled to find that we are from New England. One of us asked where
she was from and she replied with a strong accent, "I'm from New
York!” Suddenly, we're long lost friends talking about the
differences in the commute, weather and housing.
We
were called into the exam room. The nurse introduced herself and said
she was substituting for the doctor's regular nurse. My husband and
I are anxious. She opened the file folder with his records and saw
that he was there for the follow-up of the aneurysm procedure. She
shook her head and explained that her dad had died of a brain
aneurysm when he was 41. She said she was coming up on that age and
just didn't feel too good about it.
I
never realized how many people have experienced brain aneurysms until
now. Her story of her father's experience is typical. Come to find
out there are so few survivors under the age of 65 that those stories
are seldom told.
The
nurse checked his vitals which were good. Strong pulse and increased
weight which is what they were looking for. (I know the weight
problem is something some of you might not want to discuss but this
happened in August. It's not unusual for his weight to decrease in
the summer but him not eating for a week while he was hospitalized
made his weight cause for concern.) His blood pressure is still
on the low side but it is up into the low normal and will just need
to be monitored. The nurse was pleased for everybody involved.
We
saw the doctor and he was happy to answer all of our questions.
Actually, the nurse had already answered them but he reviewed
everything that we had discussed with her and told my husband that he
will need to have another follow-up in November. If they are to find
anything they will do a repair at that time. Hoping and praying that
all goes well he will then need to have an MRI done at the one year
anniversary. In the mean time, my husband is to steadily increase
his activity until something happens that tells him he can't.
Now we notice that we have become uncomfortably numb and we're faced with the choice of either getting up and leaving of
sitting in the exam room until the nurse calls security!
We
checked out and walked the seemingly ten miles to the car. Fairly
uneventful. As we were exiting the parking garage I start thinking
again and had my husband ask the attendant about the valet parking.
She told us it would cost six dollars as she took our five dollar
bill. I laughed and said, "Well, aren't we stupid?!" She
smiled and replied in her heavy southern accent, "You know
that's right. Have a good day!"
