[Maverick]

Hi All,

I am pretty new here, but I hope someone can help me gain some answers to what is going on.

To give you some background, I am 30 years old and 15 years ago, as a young man I suffered a massive subarrachnoid brain haemorrhage which nearly killed me. Indeed I arrested twice on the operating table, yet by chance and luck, I am still here. As a general rule am normally quite okay. I have no impairment in movement or brain function, in terms of everyday logic, problem solving, etc. Just a rather poor short-term memory and issues in organizational skills. For reference, the haemorrhage was caused by Polycystic Kidney and dual-berry anyeurism, of which one ruptured.

However, the following has taken place since.
About 10 years ago, I used to get attacks of dizziness, normally lasting about 30 seconds or so which simply made me feel very sick and hot, commonly breaking out into a serious sweat. These would happen anything between once a month to, at their height, 2 or 3 times a day.
After a year or so, these eventually went away, but were replaced approximately 5 years back with a tendency to occasionally, perhaps 3 or 4 times a year, fit in my sleep, which resulted in a dislocated shoulder. Again, this lasted for about a year before going away by itself.

Now the problems are back, and this time I've been putting up with it for almost 2 years, hoping it would go away, as the other two did, but it isn't showing any signs of stopping.

What happens now is this...
I get dizzy spells and 'blackouts'. Sometimes I get a warning of up to 2 or 3 minutes whereby I feel a little disconnected from reality, sometimes I hear my own voice in my head and can almost talk myself out of the episode that may otherwise be coming before the dizzyness strikes, other times it comes on in 10 seconds or so and I can't do anything about it. When the dizziness actually strikes, it's like my brain has been hit with strong drugs in a sudden rush, the hot feeling from 10 years ago breaks out and then I black out. To the outside world, I am still conscious and at times even continue with 'life', such as completing paperwork, doing whatever I was doing previously, etc. I even once managed to carry on driving for about 5 or 6 miles without incident before the episode ended and I 'regained control'.
However, those who know that I have these episodes will recognise them, as I may appear confused or very one track minded, only focussing on what I had planned out in my mind to get done, I never actually lose consiousness. I just have no consious involvement during this phase, it's like I'm on autopilot.
Typically the fog slowly lifts after around 5 to 10 minutes from the episode beginning, whereby I may be a little confused for a couple of minutes - I will however have no memory of the time between the dizzy spell starting and it's eventual end, I then have to piece together what has happened in between. Sometimes, with something to focus on, such as really concentrating on reading a book or email, even after the dizziness has already kicked in I can stop the 'blackout phase' from happening and only get the dizzy spell and hot sweats, occasionally with a strong emotional rush of negative feelings for a minute or two before returning to normality.

Post haemorrhage, I had various CT's and MRI's, both with contrast and was given an all clear, but this was perhaps 12 years ago now.

This is happening anything between once a month and twice a week at the moment and I don't know what to do about it. Is this condition known? Is there anything I can do?

Any help appreciated. Mav

[Lightrail11]

Hi Maverick and welcome to NT.

I had a subarachnoid hemorrhage along with an epidural hematoma that required surgical intervention, this about 2 ½ years ago. Other than some minor vertigo I don’t have any of the symptoms you describe.

I’m not a neurologist or neurosurgeon, but it would seem to me unlikely the symptoms would spontaneously present again after years of relative recovery unless there was something else going on. From your post you don’t say if you have seen a neurologist recently with these latest symptoms, so the best I can suggest is to get in to see one as soon as possible. The brain is a complex organ, and what you describe could be from another aneurysm, mini-stroke, or something related to the original hemorrhage. In any case it’s not something you should delay in getting checked out.

[Maverick]

Hi and thanks for the reply... Some further feedback from my wife, who knows better than I what happens in the time I am 'out of the room'.
She describes the episodes as like dealing with a confused patient, and I must admit, I have gone to the mall at lunch before only for an episode to strike, what happened when the fog lifted was that I was certain that I'd ordered lunch, but I hadn't. It was almost as is my brain had fabricated the memory of ordering. She likens it to talking to an alzheimers patient for10 minutes.
I should, perhaps also say that when I had the original haemorrhage, on the day I came out of hospital, I had a total memory failure, I knew where I was (because it was written on the great ormond street hospital bed sheets), but had no idea why I was there or what had happened. This persisted throughout the day and I would forget things within minutes off being told them. The next morning, having had a good nights sleep, my memory of what had happened was restored, but with all of the bad bits and the memory of the pain permanently erased from my mind. Odd how I can remember the moment my memory loss struck, like it was still there but I had no access to it... I know the brain is complex and I will never understand its workings. But perhaps I really should see a neurologist about these episodes.
Note: An EEG performed at the time of the dizzy spells 10 years ago also yielded nothing other than normal brain activity. I just need some answers.

[Lightrail11]

Originally Posted by Maverick

I should, perhaps also say that when I had the original haemorrhage, on the day I came out of hospital, I had a total memory failure, I knew where I was (because it was written on the great ormond street hospital bed sheets), but had no idea why I was there or what had happened. But perhaps I really should see a neurologist about these episodes.

I relate to the memory failure soon after surgery, I have about four weeks of anterograde amnesia following my craniotomy, where I didn't know where I was or why. I still can't remember those four weeks but I process new memories fine now. Since your surgery was years ago I think a decision to have a follow up with a neurologist is prudent.

Wishing you well.

[Maverick]

Sorry if I'm being forceful, but can I assume that nobody has ever heard of this kind of issue, and the advice is simply, go and see a neurosurgeon?