Brain blood clot, seizure

Life Health & Fitness
1

My wife has been complaining of headaches over the last week or so. The other day she went to the neurologist, who said it was probably down to too much time at the computer, too much stress (with our impending departure to China, perhaps especially). She’s been pretty lethargic and generally fed up.

Today she took the kids to ayi’s house in the car by herself. Half way there she suddenly stopped the car and began talking incoherently and confusedly. A seizure I suppose. Our older son found the mobile and called ayi to say help mummy’s gone weird, younger son in tears. Then she comes out of it and starts the car and drives off, apparently with no awareness at all of what has just happened. Yeah my son could have told her not to drive but what does he know, he’s only 11.

Ayi bf phones me and says wtf ayi just ran out of the apartment saying sis is sick, what’s the matter with Emily he wants to know? I just finished having my hair cut here at hoem and of course I have no idea.

They arrive and ayi is there in the car park. Emily is like carrying on and parking the car but still speaking incoherently (I get through to her on the phone at this point and can’t figure out what’s going on, she’s just sounding strange) and making a mess of the parking. Finally they get upstairs and E’s head still hurting, and tummy too. Goes to the bathroom to throw up and then (while I’m on the phone to ayi) starts having another seizure. They call an ambulance and obviously I go to the hospital too.

She has a CT scan and there’s a something in her brain. A xue kuai. They keep asking if she’s banged her head in the last couple of days and she hasn’t. They say it could possibly be a tumour, but more likely just a lot of blood vessels luanqibazao and bleeding, not too clear here.

They took her up to ICU. I took the kids home and tried to explain what is going on as best I can. They will do an MRI and maybe angiograph when she’s a bit more stable.

I’m supposed to take the little one to HK on Sunday to get my China work visa and start the process of moving to China, and E (completely compos mentis now) keeps saying I should go home and get on with packing. But obviously we have to postpone our departure.

Well they’ll call if there are any developments. Can’t stay with patients in ICU, only two visits a day.

If anyone has a clearer idea than me of what this is all about, please say so. If anyone does praying, that’s also OK by me.

Thanks for reading.

2

:frowning: Wow! I’m sorry that I don’t have any idea what it’s about, but please know that there will be many of us with our fingers crossed for you. I sincerely hope that it turns out to be nothing more than a scary blip on the radar screen. Hang in there, stay calm, and hope that it works out for the best.

3

Yikes, that’s worrying. I have no clearer idea, but I very much hope this proves to be a localized, isolated incident.
Luck.

4

Geez mate, some hardcore events. Lots of love to you guys.

5

Sorry to hear all that. Hope she heals completely. Good thing you did the cat scan immediately.

I dont know which hospital you are using but my mother had very successful brain surgery and excellent care over the course of 2 weeks at Shin Kong Wu Ho Su Memorial Hospital about 15 years ago . Address here:

地址
111台北市士林區文昌路95號

GPS定位 經度: 121°31’15" (121.5208)
緯度: 25°05’47" (25.0964)
電話 (02)28332211轉2267，2260
Address No.95, Wunchang Rd., Shihlin District, Taipei City 111, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
TEL (02)28332211 ext. 2267, 2260
EMAIL A006573@ms.skh.org.tw

6

That is so scary! Luckily it wasn’t so severe that she had an accident with the kids. Will you have medical aid in China? It’s good that this happened before you went over…she is in good hands, good equipment here and she can get help fast, unlike other countries where you’re on a waiting list etc.

I’m thinking of Bret Michaels that had a huge brain aneurism(spelling) and managed to pull out of it and perform on Idols a couple of weeks later. Will pray for her for sure!!! Good luck and keep us updated…you can PM me if you need some free time to figure stuff out…I can babysit.

7

[quote=“smithsgj”]Well they’ll call if there are any developments. Can’t stay with patients in ICU, only two visits a day.

If anyone has a clearer idea than me of what this is all about, please say so. If anyone does praying, that’s also OK by me.[/quote]
Prayers and good vibes headed your way. Let me know if there’s any way I can help.

Anthony
0935-560-995

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Best wishes. Hope everything turns out ok.

9

Praying. :thumbsup:

10

That’s not good, Mr Smith. Did they give Mrs Smith a plain CT scan or one with contrast dye injected into the artery feeding the brain? blood vessel damage is very hard to see without contrast CT or MRI, and tey just be guessing at the moment. It does sound a lot like a stroke, in a location that affects speech and awareness, so perhaps n the left temporal or maybe part of the frontal lobe (just forward of the left ear and just behind the left eye). This can be caused either by a clot blocking blood flow to an area, or by a bleed in the spot. This can happen as the result of a blow to the head, as a result of some clot forming elsewhere (maybe in the left side of the heart) that then floats downstream and lodges in the brain, or spontaneously when a tangled vessel formation with weak walls suddenly gives way. My cousin died that way very suddenly one day, and it’s more common than one would expect. Serious bleeds are known as an aneurysm, while minor ones are called a haemorrhagic stroke. They can be precipitated by turning the head too fast, standing on ne’s head and raising blood pressure suddenly, by taking too much aspirin or other anti-platelet drugs, etc… lots of seemingly innocent things.

Insist on a competent vascular neurologist (like Lai Ming-Der at Tai Da or Hung Kuo-Sheng at Wanfang) to give another examination especially if the seizures continue. Depending on the size and location of the bleed, various tricks can be used to stop them in the future. If the bleeds are small, then they are less likely to be accessible for physical treatment, and one can only wait for the bleeding to stop, whcih can be days and can have lasting effects on the brain tissue. In most cases the brain is plastic enough to allow other neighbouring neurons to take over the role of those lost, especially with supportive therapy designed to really work those brain connections and force them to redevelop. This is particularly true if the volume affected is small, and I suspect that most people have silent haemorrhagic strokes at some point in their life that they are completely unaware of. Another less welcome outcome is that the damaged area becomes a focus for future epilepsy, in this case, what are known as petit mal or ‘absence seizures’. These can certainly be controlled very well by drugs, but are rarely recovered from completely if the focus remains a trigger point (ie, by scarring and stressing the adjoining neurons so that they begin to fire frequently).

My thoughts are with you and your family, and I hope this turns out to be at the minor end of the scale and she recovers completely.

11

Prayers and kind thoughts.

12

Peace and strength to you and your family, Mr.Smith.

13

Yes. Good luck.

14

Jimi and the Sanchong posse are sending big love your way.

15

What an awful scare. Angels watching over the kids, certainly, as this stuck in a dangerous moment yet they are OK.

Hope E’s problem is quickly identifie dnad taken care of. Wishes of a speedy recovery.

16

Thanks for all your wishes and prayers. It’s much appreciated.

@divea: Thanks for the message and offer of help. Luckily we’ve got good (edit: orig said god lol) support in the family, so practicalities are taken care of. It would certainly be tough for an expat family to organize everything.

She’s still in ICU, where we’ve broken all the rules about length of visit (supposed to be only 2 30 minute visits a day) and age of visitors (both our kids are under 12 and not allowed, but so far I’ve just been smiling politely when this is pointed out).

@urodacus (in particular perhaps) She’s had several tests, including 3 scans one of which was MRI. This last enabled the doctor to confirm that it is NOT A TUMOUR. :whew:

Seems like it’s a blocked/narrowed artery up there; apparently this is less serious than if it were a vein. further :whew:

They will now take blod and examine it. This, and an angiogram, are planned for tomorrow. An angiogram, it seems, involves inserting a catheter where there are big veins (in the leg) and passing it up ALL THE WAY THRO THE VEIN SYSTEM :eek: up to the brain veins to have a better gander at what’s going on up there. I don’t know why the angiogram can’t be done through the artery system to actually reach the problem area.

One way to sort out the blockage, in fact, might be to do something similar to an angiogram but indeed through the arteries. Instead of just sending up a “camera”, they would sen a “pair of scissors” as well and do a little operation that way.

Some of this may have got lost in my internal translation engine but I think that was basically it. The doc is conferring with the zhuren about whether this op can/should be done.

She’s at Shuanghe in yong-zhonghe. Family has asked about transferring her to a “better” hospital, but it turns out that there is a family connection to the zhuren (he is the xuezhang of the brother of the classmate of E). The brother of classmate is a doc at taida, and he says the doc’s top tray. Apparently he and the whole dept moved over from Wanfang or something. Name is Lin Jia-wei (jiating de jia)

Anyway just as well because my intuition would be to leave her right where she is.

Lucky we didn’t go to China first, lucky the car didn’t crash, lucky the kids were OK. I guess we have a lot to be thankful for.

:bow:

She’s been told no air travel for 6 months. This is a blow for the China trip… anyone any ideas? I suppose boat to Jinmen and on to Xiamen…

Seems to me that given the comparative risks of sea and train travel, it might well be safer to travel by air even despite the advice. I asked some friends about this last night, and they said that was crazy because I would blame myself for ever if the worst happened to her on a plane. I see that sort of, but can anyone think of a better way of analysing it. Perhaps the answer is that the risk of air travel is massive.

THanks all.

17

ummm can you think of what you will do if she suffers another seizure in china??? forget about blamingyourself, are you ready to face the same (or worse) situation with kids and NO family support. Please do not take this lightly. Work around her illness, she has to be your priority.

18

Thoughts and prayers with you smith. Just on the boat thing, there are boats to Matsu and then on to Fujian. No boats to Kinmen from Taiwan. Look also into direct boats to China from Taichung.

19

Thanks for the update. I’ll continue to pray. You may have to look at putting China off for a while, or allowing your wife to stay here while you’re there. I know everything is maybe happening at light speed. Stop and take a moment to breathe. Don’t rush anything now.

20

I second the no flying rule. The air pressure in the cabin is set to about the 5000 to 8000 feet level when the plane reaches cruising altitude. NOt good if you are not in shape.

Good news on the rest though. The machine that goes into the brain with a camera or a cutter? My mom had that done, its a pretty amazing machine and does its job pretty well.