More Back story-Surgery-Number 1

So, the weeks leading up to surgery were filled with fear and anxiety but somehow my husband and I survived them and on Tuesday the 26th of October, we headed to Maryland once again.
The drama began almost immediately as we waited for 30 minutes for our dinner pass that my surgeon had told me he would add as an order. Then we headed out for one last good meal before an unknown amount of time with hospital food. Upon our return from dinner, the nursing staff came in to start my IV. After 5 attempts, my husband had to leave the room. When the 2 nurses asked me if he was okay, I responded with "Well, he can hit an IV in a helicopter and you two are having trouble with me lying on this bed." Now, I know I am not a hard stick-so this comment was funny to me. Maybe I wasn't doing the best bonding with my nurses....The sixth stick was a success so we were set. My husband stayed with me in the room all night and we shared the little bed and tried desperately to sleep with all the vital sign checks and normal hospital sounds.
Morning came, and they came to get me and wheel me to the pre-op area. I met with anesthesia and got some more IV lines. This time with no problem! My nerves were thru the roof, but I tried to remain calm. At this point, I really had no other choice.
I remember being taken into the OR after kissing my hubby for good luck and lifted onto the OR table, but then the drugs kicked in and apparently they kicked in too well because I don't remember anything until sometime late Friday!
From what I am told, my surgery lasted about 8 hours total. Then 4 hours post-op my cerebellum sagged (that is the bottom part of your brain that is involved in the coordination of voluntary motor movement, balance and equilibrium and muscle tone). This sagging caused some of the vessels to tear causing a brain bleed-like a stroke. Not exactly what you want to happen after we just did a surgery to prevent a brain bleed! The crazy part is that this was diagnosed by my husband-not any of the ICU staff. So, he went out and yelled for someone to page Neuro and get me a CT. In my opinion, he saved my life. I am not sure how long it would have been before someone else would have checked my neuro signs and noticed it. Thank God for very talented Army Medics :-). So, I had a CT, they changed the position of my bed and pulled out a drain that had been inserted and the bleeding was able to repair itself. But, the damage had been done-even today, I can not stand with my eyes closed without nearly falling. But, that is getting better with physical therapy. 
I was blessed to have my mom, younger brother, in-laws, husband and brother in law all there to support me! Oh, and Archie the German Shepherd therapy dog at the hospital. 
That little brain bleed combined with the trouble I had waking up from anesthesia earned me a 5 day stay in ICU before I was moved to a regular floor. 
When I was allowed to get up, I learned that I had a lot of trouble standing and walking so I was given a cane if I had to walk or a wheel chair. This was all extremely hard on me being that a week before I had run 8 miles! 
Finally, it was time to be released from the hospital. My mom had been amazing enough to bring Trevor up to my in-laws who were nice enough to keep him. They live much closer to the hospital, so we headed there until I was strong enough for 6 hours on I-95! 

The Back Story-Pre-Surgery

Hello, my name is Shelley. I am a 31 year old pharmacist and proud Army wife. I live in NC on 6 acres with our horses and my german shepherd, Trevor. I would consider myself to have been in pretty decent shape mentally and physically before this whole ordeal started. Thank you for allowing me to vent to the web as a way to recover.
So, I have decided to start a blog as a way to reflect on my recent life events and hopefully as a way to make myself see that I am actually moving forward. In order for any of this to make sense, I need to start from the beginning. Here goes!
So, in September of 2010, I was happily working, riding, and training for my first half marathon. I had finally gotten my dream work schedule in order to give me more riding and running days. I worked Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. So, my Tuesdays and Thursdays could be spent outside. Now, every year I have an MRA of my brain because cerebral aneurysms run in my family. I have been lucky and have always had normal scans, until 2010. My scan was taken in September and my doctor called to tell me that they needed a better look, so I needed to come back for a CT. Following that scan, I received a phone call asking me to leave our home in NC and head up to Maryland to meet with a neurovascular surgeon on Thursday Oct7th at 7:30AM. Not a great phone call!
So, my husband and I headed to Maryland after work on Wednesday night leaving my mom with the horses and Trevor. We were at the Neurosurgery desk around 7am on Thursday. We met with a surgeon who reviewed my recent scans with me. It turned out that I did have an aneurysm on my middle cerebral artery. It was small in size, only 4mm, but because of it's structure it was recommended that we take action to prevent it from rupture. Now, anyone who has been in this position will know that I was sitting there hoping to hear the surgeon say that we could do a coiling procedure rather than actually opening my skull to get in and correct it. Unfortunately, he believed it could not be coiled due to its shape, so craniotomy it is. He scheduled me for a cerebral angiogram for the following morning. I was devastated!  As I sobbed in the waiting room, my husband called family and friends to relay the horrible news. Surgery was scheduled for Oct 27th.
The following morning we arrived for the cerebral angiogram. It was horrible! I was told that I would have medications that would make me comfortable and not remember much of the procedure-similar to what you receive for a colonoscopy. However, my medication was not strong enough, so I could feel the catheter running from my thigh all the way up to my head. It was a scary and painful feeling. I was sobbing and shaking from it all, and they had to literally hold me down on the table. Then, they started yelling at me that if I didn't stop sobbing and shaking, my femoral artery would not stop bleeding. Not exactly the comforting words I needed to hear. But, at least it was over!
The study from hell just confirmed that I did in fact have to undergo the full surgery, coiling was not an option. So, we returned home and tried to get back to life for a few weeks while we could. My husband was scheduled to deploy later that month, but luckily, because of the severity of my surgery, he was allowed to stay home and care for me. He did have to miss a trip of a life time that he had been invited to go on prior to deploying which I still feel badly about but as you read this, you will see as I have that I truly could not have survived this without him by my side.