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Aneurysm plus stroke
My son is 36 yrs old. He apparently had a aneurism 7 days ago. He was transported to a hospital that was not equipped to treat him. He was transferred to correct hospital for treatment. Surgeon advised he attempted to use a coil method to stop the bleeding. Surgeon stated he had to use a different process - maybe like a small square of something that clamps down to stop the bleeding. That same evening, my son suffered a stroke. His entire left side is currently paralyzed. He’s starting to become more alert and I think he understands what happened. He was intubated twice. Yesterday was his first meal of solid food. He was able to eat a little bit. Thankfully he is right handed, but there was still evidence of a struggle. Hopefully this eliminates my fear of a feeding tube in his stomach. He started physical and occupational yesterday. He is currently hooked up to a catheter and tons of different IV drips on both sides of his bed. He recognizes us. He tries to talk, but I think intubating him twice has severely limited his speech? I can understand him sometimes, but it’s a whisper. I was told he would remain in ICU for 21 days? I have no clue what to expect down the road. He is cognizant, but he thinks he’s going home in a few days. He was in the process of selling his home. His realtor is trying to get me Power of Attorney so I can represent him at closing. I guess my question is whether he has a short road to recovery or a long road to recovery. I just don’t know what happens next. I have a bedroom for him in my home, but I am also disabled and not sure what may be expected of me in terms of caring for him. Sorry this is such a long message 💔
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I am new here, in fact I came here to try and learn some information. I think this is the right place to post so if not, I apologize.My sister-in-law had a minor stroke about a month ago. The only symptom was the inability to use her left hand. She had feeling and all but just couldn't use it, it would just hang there. During imaging, they found an aneurysm and last week, she had surgery to repair it. I don't know the technicalities of how they did the repair, other than she has an incision almost all the way across her hairline around her head.Since the surgery, she has medically done fine. In other words, all of that appears to be healing well. However, she has been showing what I would call severe signs of dementia since. Telling nurses she has asthma, telling everyone her brother and niece are down the hall, believing she has family members stopping by in the middle of the night, and many many other things. She was moved to a rehab facility yesterday and was determined my brother was spending the night. My brother left today to go get stuff she needed and she called me 4 times in 2 hours, telling me about the family members that have stopped by (they haven't) along with other things that she has imagined. This has been almost nonstop. The doctors keep telling us she is improving greatly, and she may be physically, but the mental thing is wearing everyone out. They say it should improve with time, but can offer no timeline or if being this bad for this long is normal. She is 71 but acts like my crazy grandma (sorry, honestly can't think of a better word for her and she didn't like me much anyway) when she went off the rails in her late 80s.At our wit's end trying to find out if this is normal, or if her now will just be her new normal. She is driving my brother (who has health problems of his own) crazy and stressing him out to the point I worry about him crashing. There may be no answer to this but I had to at least find a place to type it out and ask.
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1 Reaction@dogloverdude - welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I wanted to let you know I moved your post to this existing discussion where others were discussing someone they care about experiencing a stroke and an aneurysm:
- Aneurysm plus stroke https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/aneurism-followed-by-stroke/
Hoping you can meet members here sick as @sharniegirl @mkoch @slowrunner1 @houston13. They may have input from watching their loved ones and other inpatients near them who may have experienced dementia like symptoms after stroke and surgical repair of an aneurysm.
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1 Reaction@lisalucier I finally found this message, how or where, I don't know, but I did happen on it. I actually assumed it had been deleted for some reason, so I posted another without using so many "triggering" words, although sometimes there are no other words. I just found what I thought was the best category and posted it there. I will check the new place and I guess the new post I made here can be deleted?
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2 ReactionsFrom what you describe (an incision almost all the way across her hairline) it sounds as if she had a craniotomy.
I had one two years ago. Afterward I had some trouble retrieving a particular word during conversations. I asked my neurosurgeon about this and he said it was normal, from the anesthesia. And he said it would resolve in the next few months, which it did. ( It took about 3 and a half months.) For older people the anesthesia can be really hard. My father-in-law had surgery and afterward kept asking where his wife was. (She had passed away years ago.) If she is not better in a month I would insist on another consult. Her condition sounds more extreme than what I experienced and I wouldn't wait 3 months to see if she got better. Perhaps the neurosurgeon would pass her on to a neurologist who specializes in dementia issues.
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1 Reaction@mkoch Thank you for the reply. She has not really had an issue remembering or forming words, and in fact she talks a lot, she just keeps telling me things I know didn't happen. I guess that would be a craniotomy, I know I didn't know what to expect but I certainly didn't expect an incision all the way across her head! We kept getting told it will improve but it seems to be getting worse... I do think he needs to talk to the neurosurgeon some more and see what he says. Her mental acuity has been 100% until they cracked her head open, now it seems more like 10%..... Thank you again for taking the time....
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