In October, my husband developed a headache that wouldn't go away. He never really ever had headaches before! so this was unusual. He's 53, has controlled blood pressure, wasn't in an accident, didn't drink and pass out (and hit his head). He was in excellent physical shape...a marathon runner. The doctors treated the headache with cluster headache medicine. Compounding the medical problem, my husband travels for work so popping into the doctor is difficult. After many frustrating calls with the doctors, we were given orders for a brain CT scan. The imaging tech was excellent and called the radiologist when he saw the image. We were directed from the center to the emergency room where the doctors there couldn't believe he hadn't been in a car accident because the subdural hematoma was so big.
He was scheduled for surgery and when they took him in they were planning on a craniotomy, but found that they could evacuate the fluid with burr hole surgery. The hospitalization lasted about a week with 4 days being in intensive care.
We thought back to possible injuries he may have had. In March last year, he was struck hard by a snowboarder who did a blind jump. The impact was impressive and it cracked some of his ribs. We felt that the impact jerked his head back and that he probably hit his head when he was knocked off his feet. The neurosurgeon said that the blood wasn't old enough. My husband remembered hitting his head on the fence when he was working on it and the timing was about right...so we decided that was a probable cause. Maybe the snowboard incident contributed...we just don't know.
It was stressful and scary to be thrown into this situation for all of us. We were lucky to have supportive family and friends help us. If you are supporting a person or a family going through this... you can help by simply sending dinner to the people at home. It really helped me because I knew that our kids and my family who flew in to help were being fed at least so I could be at the hospital to advocate for my husband. It is really important for someone to be present to help the patient in the hospital and to keep an eye on medications and dosing. I caught missed medications (the medications to stop seizures) and was able to run to the nursing station to request help when he needed it.
Post surgery, his head was wrapped, he had a drain in to remove fluid and he was restricted from elevating more than 20 degrees. I had to watch that he didn't sit up beyond that amount, which he wanted to do because he was stuffed up, uncomfortable and medicated for pain. When they removed the drain...it made him sick to his stomach and he vomited, which was terrifying because he was straining and sitting up.
Once we got home...he really started feeling better. He stayed quiet and worked from home until January 1. He had follow-up CT scans and was told he was healed And that he could return back to normal activity.
Then in late January, he got another headache. Being more cautious, he called his neurosurgeon And went in for another CT. He was diagnosed with a second subdural hematoma on the other side of his head. For the past two months we gave seen several neurologists, a hematologist and the neurosurgeon. He has had CT scans, MRIs and a CT angiogram along with countless blood tests.
So as of now, his headache has gone away. The bleed appears to have stopped and appears not to be drawing fluid to it...so far so good...because staying away from another surgery is clearly an objective. The blood tests have not provided a reason for a bleed. We just don't know why he has developed the 2nd bleed. What we do know is that he hasn't had another injury since the late December CT image showed his head free of a bleed.
We expect that next week's MRI will show ongoing re-adsorption.
Now he is just ready to get back to normal and to begin running again. It is hard to slow down when you are athletic and enjoy the exercise.
I hope all of you and your friend and family are healed and back to your routines. If anyone has experienced a second subdural hematoma. I would appreciate hearing your story.
Lorazepam (Ativan)...may help.
I also had a subdural hematoma in 10/2013. I had surgery on 10/1/2013 discharged home on 7, and re admitted to the hospital with a very strong headache which was another bleed on 11/2013. I needed 2 surgeries to control the bleed. My surgery was performed at Mass General In Boston, my neurosurgeon told me that sometimes people need to have a shunt placed to stop the bleed. Good Luck.
I understand your frustration in not knowing what to expect, or what is the norm. I hope your recovery is progressing in the 4 months since your last post . Good luck.
I also have a strange headache (but of course I'm not sure that it is the same kind of strangeness) after my operation. It is 10 years ago. I haven't got the answer, but wondered if you have found out how to get rid of it in the meantime?
Anyways, I can say that I fully recovered, have not had any mental issues that I noticed, run, work out, etc, etc. Actually, I am getting married in July.
It took me about a year and a half to recover my muscle mass and get back in shape, but that was more to do with literally not doing anything for 6-8 months after the surgery as instructed by my doctor.
The only negative issue is that I have now had 8 CT Scans in total so I sometimes get some anxiety that I am going to get a brain tumor. It seems like anytime something happens, the doctors want to immediately CT scan your head once this has happened. On the flip side, I am told by my radiologist (family friend) that I shouldn't listen to the fear mongering by the anti-CT scan crowd about the radiation, there is much less radiation on the newer machines than older ones and there is a lot of pure science coming out these days trying to refute the old method of measuring radiation.
I got lucky I guess.