Once upon a time, long ago, well before my SAH anyway, I saw a programme on the human brain. I was heard to exclaim "that's fascinating! I love brains" - at which point my daughter fell about laughing. She has never let me live it down. Apparently it makes me some kind of dork. Or geek. Or something.
Anyway, a little while later I was struck down with a ruptured aneurysm. Little did I know I was about to find out an awful lot about my very own brain. To cut a long story short (if you want to read about it, just follow the links to "the brain thang" in the "Categories" cloud over on the right there) I had surgery, a clip was inserted across the neck of the aneurysm, and I pretty much made a full recovery.
I have only just received a CD of the scans, and I thought I'd share. You're welcome.
That first one was taken on the day of the bleed. I am reliably informed that blood shows up as white bits where there shouldn't be any. I'm still none the wiser.
A month after surgery, I still had a large "blob" of CSF fluid under my skin on my right temple, where the surgery had taken place. By this time, I was back at my local hospital where I'd had my original scan, so they did another one and sent it off to the Neurological hospital to ask the opinion of my surgeon. These are the pictures that really fascinate me. You can clearly see something outside my skull on the right (on the left of the picture), and you can see how the fluid inside is compressing my brain. Moreover, bang in the middle there (on the left hand picture), you can clearly see the bright white signal of the titanium clip that was inserted to stop the blood flowing out of the artery. Look how far inside my head that is. It blows my mind, no pun intended. It doesn't show on the right-handed pic because that one is from a bit higher up my head.
Anyway, I'm extremely grateful that all that swelling and fluid settled down eventually and that my cognitive issues are not as bad as they could have been. I give thanks for that every single day.
Very interesting,it's wonderful what docs can do even if there's still a long to go before understanding the whole brain. We are such complex beings!!
Posted by: Jackie | 04/05/2013 at 12:55 PM
Hi Jen,
Great blog, we have just posted a link to it from our Facebook page and on Twitter!
Posted by: Catherine at the Brain and Spine Foundation | 04/09/2013 at 11:18 AM