BDette's Recovery Fund
March 22, 2017 started out as a normal day for me. Little did I know my life would change forever that evening. I came home from work and as I was getting ready for bed, I experienced worse feeling ever. Pain was shooting from my head to my neck. I grew nauseous, somehow I made my way to the bathroom where I started to vomit nonstop. I reached out to a friend for help but she was not available. I called another friend who arrived at the same time as the paramedics. After being assessed by paramedics; they said it was just a bad migraine. My friend took me to Med Clinic. Luckily the medical staff knew I needed to get to emergency room ASAP. Upon arrival at hospital I was diagnosed as having a ruptured brain aneurysm. That night I had an angiogram.. Next day I had open brain surgery to clip ruptured aneurysm with 2 titanium clips. I remained in ICU for nineteen days. During this time I had numerous lumbar puncture procedures due to fact that fluid kept building up in my brain. While there I suffered a mild stroke. I lost strength to my left arm, left leg and lost peripheral vision to my left eye. Once released I returned to emergency room twelve days later. At this time I was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, this hospital stay was seven days. Five dys after returning home once again I returned to emergency room. It was at this time my neurosurgeon advised me I need another surgery to place a shunt . This would help to reroute the fluid building up in my brain. On May 24, I had shunt operation. I have regained some of the lost strength to my arm and leg. However, there is no change to my vision on left eye., my neurosurgeon did advise me that if I do regain my peripheral vision it will be between six months to a year. I have been doing speech and physical therapy two times a week since May 2. . Presently, I am using a walker to get around. In order to continue my recovery, I also need to rest so my brain can heal from both my major operations. What was thought to be a bad migraine turned into something very unexpected and life changing. My mother, Olga, has been with me since March 23. She is my caretaker 24/7, makes sure I get to my doctors appointment, therapy sessions and is helping me on my road to recovery. My sister, Stacee has also been h ere durng my illness. She travels to San Antonio from El Paso whenever possible. I would like to thank everyone for reading my story and I would appreciate any contributions.