Breathe

There was relief all round that I had made it through the op. I still had a cracking headache and felt grim from the anaesthetic, but my 'Annie' had been coiled and had no more chance of rupturing. There was however a chance of Vasospasm.

Vasospasm is a complication of SAH. It's the narrowing of the arteries in the brain - vasoconstriction which could lead to a stroke. This typically appears 3-10 days post SAH. That meant to me, four hourly Nimodipine for 21 days. Starting at 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm, 2am and 6am! See, zero chance of sleep. To help avoid vasospasm I also had to have 3 litres of fluid. I was thirsty but not that thirsty!

Mum and Sally came to visit me. It was so nice to see them looking relieved. Sally had become my PA and kidnapped my phone, redirecting all messages to her. I needed to rest not be on my mobile all the time. 

My blood pressure wasn't great. That meant a higher risk of vasospasm. I was put on IV fluids to get my blood pressure up.

I dozed continuously in between drug rounds. On Monday night I was awoken my the nurses. My oxygen saturation level was too low. I was sleeping, I didn't know I was short of breath! The on-call doctor was called to see me. I couldn't catch my breath. He ordered a portable chest x-ray which showed I had some consolidation in my right mid zone. I was started on oral antibiotics and kept on nasal oxygen. 

The next day I was coughing up something really unpleasant. I had more IV fluids going through to keep up the pressure, but that night I deteriorated.

I'd been overloaded with fluids and could hardly breathe. 

'We need to transfer you to the High Dependency Unit (HDU) to be looked after by the team there', the on call doctor said. 

An Intensive Care consultant came to see me and agreed. I was transferred straight away to HDU.

It was about 5am when I arrived on HDU. They put me in a side room and I was taken over by nurses and doctors attaching things to me, taking my blood, trying to make me better. I needed another arterial line inserting into my wrist. Four attempts later and it was in my left wrist. The next thing needed was a central line. I'd seen them being inserted at work. This was the most painful thing i'd ever experienced. The pain was different from the bleed because of how uncomfortable it was. The pushing on to the right side of my neck, nope failed. The more senior doctor was teaching the registrar. This was no bloody time for teaching, I was in agony. 'Just do it yourself' I was saying in my head, squeezing hard on to the hand of a nurse, faceless, as i lay there under the sterile drapes. I was crying now, I wanted my mum, this was all too much. As the doctors failed for a second time, I asked them to stop. I needed a break, I needed to sleep.