Catriona’s subarachnoid haemorrhage story: “I shouldn’t have survived”

The 3rd of February 1992 started as a normal day. I got up at 7am and did the usual Monday housework. My husband at that time had gone out, and my 4 year old daughter went to play across the road with a neighbour’s son.

I have never experienced pain like that before or since

I went out to the garden and did some weeding so I could keep an eye on my daughter. I had a dizzy turn and said “Ooh!”. I tried to stand up but “Oh, no no I’m worse”. I have never experienced pain like that before or since. I got down on my hands and knees and crawled towards the front door. I had chest pain.

Because I was on my hands and knees and we had a hedge, nobody could see me. I was still saying “Oh no” and then I passed out. Apparently I lay there for about 45 minutes.

I do remember my daughter and her friend coming back across the road. She wasn’t tall enough to reach the handle on the door. Then she saw me lying on the grass and apparently I whispered “Get help”. This was at about 2pm.

You fainted

My neighbours came and helped me – one of them had heard me but couldn’t see anything and thought it was just kids. They helped me into the house and phoned the doctor.

The doctor was delayed and when they phoned again the receptionist said that it hadn’t sounded serious. But I had wet myself and said if the doctor didn’t come I would phone an ambulance.

The doctor came and stood at the bottom of the couch where I was lying and said “You fainted.”

“For 45 minutes? How come I can’t move my legs?”

“It’s a cold day.”

Then he went away.

At about 6pm I was violently sick. My husband half carried me up to the bathroom. I felt frozen even though the heating was on full, and I went to bed.

I don’t remember this but apparently after that I told my husband I had a terrible pain in the back of my head. The same doctor came round again, did some tests and said it could be meningitis.

Is she OK in her noggin?

An ambulance was called and on the journey to hospital I was blethering rubbish to the paramedics. I could tell the paramedic was thinking “Is she OK in her noggin?”

I was wheeled into a cubicle and the doctor did the same tests as my own doctor had done. I got annoyed with the doctor and said “Look I’ve already had this done, I’m cold and I just want to go to bed”. It was unlike me to get annoyed with a doctor. I lay on the trolley facing the wall with a blanket over me, and they said they would take me in for a chest X-ray, and that’s all I remember.

Aneurysm the size of a pinkie

I came to in Edinburgh Western General Hospital Intensive Care Unit 2 days later. My husband had had a phone call at 10am on Tuesday (the morning after I collapsed) saying that my condition had deteriorated overnight. Apparently when I told nurses I needed something for my headache they told me off for not mentioning the pain before. I don’t remember anything of that day.

On Wednesday I saw 2 consultants who said I would need an angiogram – I had a blood clot on the base of my skull and they needed to find out where it had come from. This was put off until Friday.

After the angiogram the doctor said I had an aneurysm (a balloon-like swelling) on the carotid artery which had burst. This is known as a subarachnoid haemorrhage. The aneurysm was the size of a man’s pinkie (little finger)! They said they would put a clip on it the following Thursday. Clipping is an operation where a piece of bone is cut out like a trap-door from the skull to reveal the brain underneath. The surgeon then looks for the aneurysm and permanently closes the connection between the blood vessel and the aneurysm using a small plastic or titanium clip.

I rallied at the weekend and was moved on Sunday to another ward. The consultants decided to bring my clipping operation forward to Tuesday. They asked me how I felt about having the operation and I said I felt fine – I was happy that it would be in my head and not somewhere like my abdomen, because that way it wouldn’t hurt to move. (They looked at each other when I said this). One of them asked which hand I used to write, and when I told them it was my right hand they said “That’s a pity.” But I didn’t understand why they were asking me about that.

After the operation

When I had the operation I had another bleed on the operating table but I didn’t find out about this until 6 months later.

The doctors said that after the operation I would be prone to migraines and I was. They were also frightened I might be paralysed on my right side (and that’s why they were asking if I was right handed), and that I might not be able to speak or swallow.

However, they soon knew I could speak, as after my operation I asked for my teeth! I had a dental plate and my husband had never seen me without it so I insisted I needed it back!

My husband said that the doctors came round in the afternoon and asked me to move my left leg and my right leg and were amazed that I could do it.

The next morning, my eyes were swollen after the operation. A while before that I had seen a man walking around with bruises all over his face. The doctors said they were sorry about my eyes and I said, “That’s OK, you should see the other guy!”

They asked me the same questions every day, what was my name and date of birth. I always told them my correct date of birth, but insisted I was only 21 (I was 41 at the time!)

Right side weakness and numbness

The main thing that has affected me since the operation is a slight weakness on my right side. My toes are numb with no feeling, and there’s not much feeling in my fingers either.

I spent 16 days in hospital and when I got home, my husband had arranged with the health visitor for some home help, to do housework for 1 hour a day. The health visitor had also arranged for some decorating to be done, and all our kitchen utensils had been moved into a bag.

My husband was cooking sausages and asked me to keep an eye on them while he went out of the room for a moment. I decided they needed turning but couldn’t be bothered to go to the bag with the cooking utensils, so just picked up a sausage to turn it over! Because my fingers are numb I couldn’t feel the heat. He took over the cooking after that.

A physiotherapist said that I would need to wear shoes that would support me properly. I also have to be careful, when out and about and walking up stairs, to lift my right foot enough to clear the stairs. At a Halloween party a few years ago I tripped over a dog and fell – I thought I’d twisted my ankle. I had to have a fireman’s lift to my friend Pamela’s house where I slept on the couch, but I hardly slept and had to crawl to the bathroom. I had an X-ray which showed I had broken and dislocated it! I was asked if I have a particularly high pain threshold and I think because of the numbness I might not have felt the pain the way someone else would have.

Speech, writing and memory problems

After the operation I had speech therapy, as I would often get my words muddled up. I knew what I wanted to say but sometimes it came out wrong, and the kids would laugh at what I’d said. For example, my son Adrian was tired so I said “Let him put his head on your shoulder.” But it came out as “Let him put his foot on your shoulder”!

I had problems counting out change in shops. If the price was £2.43 I would just count out the 43 pence. I also had problems with writing and reading.

A therapist asked me to write the word “Remember.” I thought I had written it correctly but she kept asking me to do it again and she told me I had written “Rember” instead of “Remember”.

My mother-in-law lent me a good book, but whenever I stopped reading I had to start again from the beginning because I couldn’t remember anything that had happened! When I finished it I said “That was a good book” but when my husband said “What was it about?” I said “I couldn’t tell you.”

These memory problems have improved now as I made a point of always reading – anything from the paper to my son’s reading book. However sometimes when I’m talking, if I am distracted I can’t remember what I was talking about.

“By rights you shouldn’t have survived”

For months after my subarachnoid haemorrhage I couldn’t be left, I was terrified. I would have been fine if I had gone on believing I was just in hospital for something routine. But when I was in hospital, a doctor introduced me to some medical students as “Catriona – our star patient!” I said “Why are you saying I’m a star?” and he said, “By rights, you shouldn’t have survived.” That was a big shock for me.

Just before my subarachnoid haemorrhage I had been taking iron tablets, as a friend of mine had recommended them. When the nurses found out they asked if I had a healthy diet and when I said yes, they said “You don’t need them,” but I’m glad I was taking them as I believe that’s what may have saved me.

My life now

I left my husband a few years after my subarachnoid haemorrhage. He was always a bit of a control freak and the SAH gave him more power. He told everyone I was mentally incapable and I found out later that he had stopped school friends from contacting me. I was in a deep depression before I left him.

These days I am happy with my partner Neil, even though he says I only have one brain cell left!

Further information

If you have any questions about subarachnoid haemorrhage or any other neurological topic, call the Brain and Spine Helpline on 0808 808 1000 or email helpline@brainandspine.org.uk.

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