God sure does have a wicked sense of humour!

In November, I started a new med for perimenopause and depression (a kind of two in one thing😆) and the third night I took it I woke up with a slight headache.... Until I reached the bathroom where I was going to get a Tylenol. Then BAM!! My head felt like it had exploded and was on fire! It was the worse headache I had ever had. I was able to call out to Dennis before I fell to the floor - where I am not sure if I passed out or not. I was hot and cold, my head was pounding, I couldn't talk or open my eyes... The. The heaving started - followed by Dennis getting me in the tub and was trying to cool me off because like I said, I felt like I was on fire! Some how Dennis got me back into bed where I again either passed out or went to sleep. I woke up the next morning with one of those migraine hangovers that takes a day or two to recover from.

We called the doctor because we were thinking that it was down to the medicine I was taking but she said no and called for a ct scan to be done. Then I promptly forgot about it. Head was gone, gave the pills another chance and issues with them. 

Fast forward to a week or so later and the doctor calls to say that they think they have found an aneurysm in the Circle of Willis in my brain; and another ct will confirm this. There was a lot of things said that pointed to possible coiling (a procedure to fix said aneurysm) and no travelling by plane for Christmas (we were planning to go to my moms in Southern Ontario). We had an appt with doctor before ct and told her again of the symptoms I experienced and some family history (I had a cousin die from a brain aneurysm a few years go). She assured us I was NOT a ticking time bomb and the next ct would give us more to go on. So we waited....and waited... And waited. In real time I had the ct on Thursday and got the results on the Monday but it felt like FOREVER! 

The second ct confirmed a small 2mm aneurysm and when the doctor called a specialist, she thought he sounded annoyed by her calling with such "a small aneurysm" because they would do nothing about it but they would see me anyway (since they get paid to see me - apparently what he said).i am also good to travel by plane now 😳 too. Which is nice so I can go see my mom, but does freak me out a bit! 

Now nice again we play the waiting game. Wait to hear from the vascular specialist, then wait for an appointment and I am sure a wait to,get results and see what they think. 

Now there is something about this that is a bit nice to know... I have headaches.

All.

The.

Time.

It is just the severity that  changes...

Circle of Willis -- My diagnosis-- a small saccular bulging of the left anterior cerebral artery and/or the junction of the anterior communicating artery

UPDATE: so we heard from the neuro vascular at the Health Science Centre in Winnipeg before Christmas and I was told by my doctor that I was safe to travel by plane to visit my mom! We had a wonderfully marvellous visit with her!! I was so glad I could go. I have an appt with the Neuro on Jan 29th ... so it is still a waiting game. 

I ave joined an Annie (the short form/nickname for aneurysms) support group on FB and they have given me some support and advice for our appt. Number ONE is ask for a second opinion -- so if his annoyance continues with our appointment that will definitely be happening. Another thing I learned was that even though the doctors say there is no correlation to Annies and headaches, most people with them DO experience headaches similar to mine! so I was told to stick to my guns. (little does this specialist know I have been dealing with these kinds of doctors for 8+ years!) 

I have still been having headaches and two times I have had toradol at the hospital.  And I have been having just daily pains in the head which are vastly becoming a pain in the a$$. 

I will try to keep things updates on here more.... but we will see.

on a humorous side note - when our son Isaac told his gf about the annie and we had the appt with the neuro the gf said (and I am SURE it was said with a smile) "What is it with your family and brain injuries!?"  I laughed and that to myself... "does this mean I have to change my blog title to family of 4 survivors?" LOL -- You have to laugh or you will only cry! lol

the call

I received a phone call last week from the PCH where my dad lives -- well someone called and I wasn't home so Dennis tookt he message and relayed to me to call them back.

It was the nurse practitioner.

My heart always does a little bit of a jump when I have to call the PCH as it is and when it is the NP that is calling it does a double flip.
She was calling to tell me about Dad's "new behaviour" (which really wasnt new but they finally took what  I have been telling them to heart and started documenting it). He has been calling out more and more (big surprise), he has been much more agitated (no kidding) and he has just generally not been too happy about things (**shock** followed by **sarcasm**).
I am trying hard to be understanding and allowing that there are many others at the PCH, but when you have a few residents that are TOTALLY incapable of doing anything for themselves, you would hope that they would take things more seriously when a family member (the only family that the resident has that visits regularily {or at all really}) repeatedly reports seeing something that is making the resident unhappy!
Anyhow... apparently they monitored and recorded what they saw over the last 2 weeks and have seen that Dad gets quite vocal (yelling and swearing) when he is uncomfortable. So when he is in his chair (his new chair that was ordered without my knowledge AT ALL)and he starts yelling, they will transfer him to bed -- and when he is in bed and he does the same, they will move him to his chair. This move I am sure will be a lot longer in coming as his room is almost at the end of the wing he lives on and is far from the nurses station and the common area. (basically I think once he is in bed ... that is where he will stay until it is time to get him for meals) I will give the staff the benefit of the doubt tho and see how it goes.
The big issue that really got me is that we are now uping a few of this med's. It is all in Daddy's best interest but it was (and still is) a big tear jerker for me. He really isnt on too much (we were able to ge thim off of alot of unnecessary medication over the last few years) mostly just tylenol for the pain of alwasy being in a chair (or bed),  stuff for BM's and a low dose for depression. The tylenol will now be replaced with something that will not do damage to his kidneys (a bonus) and it will work on the pain issue (double bonus), we are uping the depression meds to help with his moods and maybe help with the yelling and calling out -- but it may make him a bit too lucid (in my opinion) but again we will have to see how it all goes!
I know it is hard to see why giving Dad higher meds that all seem to be bonuses is hard to take, but all that keeps coming back to me is what the doctor told us when he was in ICU in Edmonton 18years ago. Dad will live with his BI (no time line was given)  and start to regress before he ....
It hurts my heart that this could be ... the beginning ... of the end? I dont want my Daddy to be in pain or live a life that he is not enjoying, but it is hard to watch this decent -- even though I have been watching it for 18yrs. Maybe I just need to get a grip and deal....