People of HealthUnlocked | Meet Claire - HealthUnlocked Blog

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People of HealthUnlocked | Meet Claire

MarketingHU profile image
25 Replies

Happy Friday everyone :-) Ever wondered what life is like after a brain haemorrhage? Meet Claire, a young mum of two and brain injury survivor. Claire writes a regular blog where she shares updates on her journey. Let her story inspire you, as it inspired us. And go to the link at the end of the post to follow Claire's blog. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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"Everyone gets tired, right? I have two children and also suffered sleeping problems so I know what tiredness feels like. But that was nothing to the tiredness I felt in the years following my brain haemorrhage.

I knew it could be a side effect of the brain bleed. Indeed, others who have suffered SAHs (Subarachnoid haemorrhage - life-threatening bleeding into the space surrounding the brain) and are lucky enough to survive regularly describe this as something they face during their recovery. But it’s not really sufficient to describe what I experienced as ‘tiredness’. This tiredness was extreme; it was a living nightmare.

I had a blood test and the initial results came back normal. But since I'm not one for just accepting things, at that point I may have gone a bit mental. I sent a stroppy email to my doctors saying I didn't think having 3 cups of coffee, 2 ginseng tablets and a Berocca energy tablet by 8am was necessarily normal. They checked again (and thank God they did) because that afternoon I had a phone call from the doctor saying I had a vitamin D deficiency.

I know I am lucky that I was able to pin down a reason for my tiredness. I think a lot of people who have had brain haemorrhages don't ever get a reason and simply have to live with it as a side-effect of their bleed. However, it does show that if things aren't right it's worth speaking to your GP. And whilst I still get really tired it's ‘normal’ tired and not so debilitating. E.g after the most recent six week summer holidays I didn't feel like I needed the children to go back to school. I’d actually enjoyed it."

Join healthunlocked.com/headway for life after brain injury support. And follow Claire's blog at facebook.com/semblance-of-n...

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Claire has given us consent to share her story.

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Stories on HealthUnlocked have an incredible way of raising awareness around certain conditions, as well as inspiring people who might be in the same situation as you. Would you like to share your health journey? Email me at communications@healthunlocked.com

xo, Leilah

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25 Replies
jillygirl profile image
jillygirl

Wow! what a story, Please thank Claire for sharing and she has my utmost respect. I wish her and her family well. :) x

MarketingHU profile image
MarketingHU in reply to jillygirl

Thanks jillygirl - will definitely do that. Have a lovely weekend!

LorraineLouise profile image
LorraineLouise

Claire

Thank you for your words. They are inspiring. I wish you and your family the vert best.

Always,

Lorraine Louise

Well done Claire, again thank you for sharing your story with us , to come through such a ordeal shows what a fighter you are,all the best in the future health wise x

SusieJo1948 profile image
SusieJo1948

Facebook, what,tweet there was one more can't remember these already been done. I've some places to spread think I'll get going sorry it's taken so long. Had to think about what to say

May need some of HU behind the scenes

how it was started by a couple of Drs"one was Matt. Than other Dr's started joining. And bringing health problems and added more forums and communities. Will that be a problem. Love susiejo1948

crazycatlady100 profile image
crazycatlady100

bless you and your family x

glo42 profile image
glo42

Thank you for sharing your story with us all. Wishing you good health and good luck in the future. XXX

Thank you to Claire for sharing her story. What a young inspirational woman and so strong.

spicecat98 profile image
spicecat98

Thank you for sharing your story. I wish continued good health for you now and onward.

blueskies--2 profile image
blueskies--2

Hi thank you so much for sharing your story . Hope you continue to have good health and your kids. wishing you well, my Mum suffered this in her 50's . Much Love x

Boohbette17 profile image
Boohbette17 in reply to blueskies--2

Hugs for you & your mum 2Bipi13onok 🌹🌹

berth profile image
berth

Hi I completely agree with you I am 42wearing age with 7kids and had a stroke13moths ago I have left side paralysis and the dreadeddatigue I find is the hardest to over come

Boohbette17 profile image
Boohbette17 in reply to berth

Big hug to you berth!!🥰 !May things get easier & only better for you! My brother had a SAH( has 4 kids) so i feel for you & have hope for good coming your way 💫🎀

Dottydi profile image
Dottydi

Many thanks for your post. I too had the same injury 2 years ago and still get tired. I haven't bothered to go back to the docs but I suspect I'm also vitamin D short as my daughter has been deficient for many years and has to take supplements. I'll look at following this up now so hopefully will have more energy than I do now.

Boohbette17 profile image
Boohbette17 in reply to Dottydi

Hang in there Dottydi , My brother also had this happen - blessings to you!! 🌸

lupus-support1 profile image
lupus-support1

A complete & perfect healing Claire!

Birdman34265 profile image
Birdman34265

Keep up that positive attitude Claire,keep at those doctors,check everything out,you are doing just fine,wish you all the best in the future..

Peter

Boohbette17 profile image
Boohbette17

Thank you for this LeilaHU -I'd like Claire to have my thanks for sharing & wishing only good health, good things & good long life to her & her family 🌈🥳🙏 I have a brother who also suffered & survived a SAH 5 years ago

mariootsi profile image
mariootsi

Thank you for sharing your story. I wish you good health and a complete recovert

Have you considered using EEG biofeedback to help in your rehabilitation? It is 95% effective in normalizing the neurophysiological brain activity. It can teach you how to activate your own brain especially in the areas that you are having difficulty activating or have slowed excessively. Brains will reorganize the functions that were responsible in that area of the brain to new still healthy functional areas.

For more information, visit neurofeedbackclinic.ca or call 1-604-730-9600 where you can view videos and scientific publications on how recovery can be achieved! Feel free to call me for more details. There are home training units available with a remote therapist/trainer.

Teresa de La Boursodiere, BSc, Masters in Health Care Management

MarkUpnorth profile image
MarkUpnorth

Yep, you had your share! And your advice is good. Never, ever, stop fighting. Do all you can do, till you're happy with the results. I'm much better in my fight, but I've had many years fighting my battle. (M.S.) On my diagnosis day, I was laying in a hospital bed with my bed partner and his chest split open, only covered with a sheet as they tried to directly fight a massive infection after quadruple bypass surgery. We both walked out,.. okay, in wheel chairs, hospital policy.., BUT, I learned, Never Give Up, and it could always be worse. A picture of the frog in the beak of the big bird, with the frog's hands clenched around the bird's neck with the saying "Never Hive Up" hangs on my wall. Keep up the fight!

And I did the 50,000 iu? Short term script doses of vit D, and still take much lower OTC doses daily, for years now, adjusting as needed by bloodwork. Should have stayed in El Paso where the sun shines everyday except for 1 or 2 days a year?

So why did I move back to the midwest?

Battle On!

Ginseng & Berocca??? I boost with an extra sublingual B-12 from time to time?

arry4424 profile image
arry4424

Hi LeilahHU

I saw your post on the same front page as the prostate cancer forum page. I too had a SAH of the anterior communicating artery on the 13th September 2004 and finally got into the hospital system 5 days later and had a life saving operation on the 21st Sept. I had been given 10 minutes to live. I did survive because I was so fit and strong. I was off work for

6 1/2 months and every day I was absolutely shattered. When I went back to work it was even worse and I was regularly going to bed early. Every time I felt a sharp pain in my skull I thought I was going to die (as most brain haemmorhage survivors do) and I still do 15 years later. However in March of this year I was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer. The initial treatment was biclutamide for a few weeks and then I have to have a zoladex implant in my stomach every 12 weeks for 3 years. I also had 37 sessions of radiotherapy which finished 3 weeks ago. The fatigue I feel now is far more debilitating than the after effects of the SAH. I am a 60 year old man and I have frequent hot flushes. I get up 3-6 times anight to go to the toilet because the radiation has irritated my bladder. The most important thing in my life (apart from my wife, children and dog) is exercise. I don`t do anything ridiculous like going to the gym but I do play golf 4 times a week and we walk the dog so I end up walking about 30+ miles a week but always at a gentle pace. If I want to have a nap I do. I try to be kind to myself and that`s what I would advocate for everyone on this forum. BE KIND TO YOURSELF!

Good luck to everyone who has posted or read any of the posts on this site.

SusieJo1948 profile image
SusieJo1948

LeilahHU I have places to put these up. One is Coleman Cancer center Terre Haute,Indiana that's where I had my Lung Cancer Treated. I am a 7 year lung cancer survivor I thought it would. be a excellent place to put it .I'm going to have one hung up and lay extras out so patients can take one with them.Thanks for letting me do this. Love susiejo1948

MarketingHU profile image
MarketingHU in reply to SusieJo1948

Thank you so much SusieJo1948 - appreciate all your support. Big hugs

Dear Claire,

I know so much how it feels like to live run down of energy. At this point of my life the past 3 days are the first in a long time that I don't go back to sleep after breakfast because of extreme tiredness. I had made a lot of investigation on tiredness and sleepiness after breakfast, I had tried everything according to investigation to no avail, even ginseng, instead of helping to raise my energy, it did all the contrary, in that it lowered my blood sugar awfully.

As part of my search I found out that the milk I added to my morning coffee, because of its ability of disactivating ATP receptors, was capable of causing such a debilitating state after so many years of intake. So, from now on, no more milk, just delicious black coffee.

Aside of that, congrats to the medical team that discovered the vitamin D deficiency connection. Only progressive physicians have that knowledge.

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