We were visiting my husband's parents in Ohio for Christmas with our two daughters (7 and 11) and a 5 1/2 month old foster baby. My husband spent the majority of those 11 days with me at the hospital while my mother-in-law and father-in-law graciously cared for the three children while I was in the hospital and for me when I was released. My mother flew in from California to fly me home and care for me for three weeks.

My church and neighborhood support groups helped in many ways for many weeks. I will be forever grateful to them all. My doctors told me that most intercranial aneurysm ruptures generally occur between the ages of fourty and sixty and between Thanksgiving and Christmas, due to the stress of that season. Only two out of five survive an aneurysm rupture and only one of those two is fully functional. I believe that God kept me here on the earth to finish raising my children.

To look at me you would not know anything happened in my brain. I have no physical consequences of the rupture other than a very big scar that is covered by my hair and some slight sensitivity to light in my left eye. I experience some aphasia (retrieval problems related to the names of objects), short term memory loss, and have lost a great deal of my reading speed and retained only moderate reading comprehension.

Update: Summer 1998

From January 1995, right after the surgery, I tried various ways to improve my reading ability. First I read just one paragraph at a time and could hardly remember reading it. After I showed improvement with paragraphs I started reading very short magazine articles, then longer articles, then on to books where the chapters were little stories all by themselves. Sometimes I needed to write lists of characters down to refer to later in the chapter. I stayed at that level for quite awhile. Suddenly in the Spring of 1998, within several months, I was reading at my former Brain Injury level! My brain had reestablished or rerouted that ability. I am so happy I can read again--it is one of my favorite pastimes. My left eye is no longer sensitive to light, and I have learned coping mechanisms for the aphasia and memory (writing lots of lists!).

I have just recently been diagnosed with Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS) by a neurologist who specializes in sleep-wake disorders. DSPS is when your internal time clock is not set at the correct light dark cycle of the day any more and can't reset itself. I often stay up into the wee hours and want to sleep in 'till late morning. Unfortunately the world doesn't run on those hours! My doctor believes that when my aneurysm rupured it did some damage to the part of the brain stem that controls the time clock in my brain. It has also affected my metabolism and has contributed to my wieght gain. I will soon go in for an overnight sleep study, CAT scan, and neuropsychiatric testing to pinpoint the area that might be damaged and decide the best way to treat my DSPS. Watch for further updates!

Email Laura