Our Scare This Week

Well this last Monday we had quite the scary evening and next 24 hours! Monday night Jordan was working out and said he felt something pop in the back of his head. He then experience the "worst headache of his life," as he described it. I took him the to ER because I remembered earlier this semester my professors saying that description of a headache is often associated with a stroke. The next few hours were the scariest ones of both Jordan and mine's life. They took him back for a CT scan. It took about an hour before they did this, and that hour was awful. He was in excruciating pain, sweating insane amounts, shaking really bad, vomiting, and then he stopped talking to me altogether. They describe the type of headache Jordan had as a Thunderclap headache because it reaches maximum intensity in just a few seconds. They also described it to us as a feeling like a brain freeze for about 24-48 hours straight. Every time he vomited his head would turn really bright red because he already had increased pressure in there from the brain bleed. The ER workers really thought he was just dehydrated, but once they saw the CT scan results, they were all over it. They hadn't yet told me anything, but I knew a something was horribly wrong because they rushed him into a room and a zillion people were coming in and out. They were asking me a ton of questions because Jordan wouldn't talk at this point. They brought in seizure pads to cover the bed rails which was scary too!

So the diagnosis was a perimesencephalic non-aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. Basically, he had a small brain bleed in the brainstem area due to a popped blood vessel. The first night he had a CT scan, a CT angiogram scan, and an MRI. If you've had an MRI before you can imagine the agony it was for Jordan with an excruciating headache and all the clicking noise it makes. It lasted for about 1 1/2 hours. They transferred him to Zale Lipshy ICU that night, where they finally got his headache down just a tiny bit. The first 24-48 hours there was a lot of monitoring to make sure he didn't continue to bleed or go downhill. Thursday, he had an angiogram to determine what caused the bleed. It turned out it was due to a popped blood vessel, which is the best thing. Other possible causes are an aneurysm or other vessel malformation. He was in ICU until Friday, then a regular room until discharge on Saturday. It took a while to find a combination of pain medicines that work pretty well. The headaches won't go away soon, but they are just trying to manage them to where he can do something because right now he can't really do anything. He even has trouble watching a full movie or TV show because it's tough to focus.

It's been rough since we got home from the hospital. We've had a hard time controlling his headaches. It's incredible how much it's affected him. Lights must be off. Sounds low. The TV bothers him after a while. He has been sleeping most of the day. He's so weak, it exhausts him to get up and go to the restroom. The nausea has returned some so we are trying to get that under control too.

Doctor said no work for at least 6 weeks probably. It will take that long for the headaches to begin fading and for him to be able to do a full day's worth of activities. He has a long road ahead of him I think.

This day he was feeling a lot better so he was getting up to use the restroom.

This is the incision from the angiogram. Everyone kept asking me how big it was so I thought I'd take a picture. This is on his upper, inner thigh. This test was the good news test that told us no aneurysm and no brain surgery! They insert a catheter in the femoral artery here and route it up to his brain. He was sedated but still awake. For 6 hours afterwards, he had to keep his leg perfectly still, couldn't raise his head, or strain for anything so it wouldn't start bleeding.

Here's my snuggie that I lived with all week. It was absolutely freezing on the ICU floor and especially in Jordan's room because he was hot. This was my best friend, along with some of Aunt Nett's blankets that she makes.When he was feeling better and didn't mind having his picture taken. I didn't take any pictures of him when he was really bad the first 48 hours or so because he was so miserable and light bothered him. Plus, you wouldn't have wanted to see what he looked like!

Major definitely senses that Jordan doesn't feel good. He has been right by him since we've been home. So sweet.