this is my story-dads anurysm

it was March 25 2007, it was a sunday,at about 9am i had half woken up and heard my dad talking on the phone i heard him say "no worries ill jump in the showa and then ill come give ya a hand pete" i drifted back to sleep.

i woke 10 minutes later to alot of noise i yelled out from my bed"whats goin on" mum,in the kitchen yelled back "its your father" by then i had jumped out of ran to the kitchen and keeped repeating whats wrong with him. by that point mum was helping dad down the hallway-he got to the kitchen and collapsed onto the oven -dinting a element cover. i just completley froze and started to shake when i seen him-i cannot even begin to describe what he was like, he couldnt balance he was speaking...almost like a childlike "the fence..pete..i gotta fix the fence.....i want my watch..." me, still frozen to the floor with a million things going thru my head..thought about my elderdly training...keep them calm. i picked up his watch "its alright dad here ill put your watch on 4 u, its alright" when i got closer to him he took me by the hand and said "Wizza,i dont want to be like this " he said it over and over you could see the fear in his eyes and im sure he could see mine.

at this point it was time to get him into the car to go to after hours drs (took 3 days before someone asked y didnt some one just call an ambo??) my older brother glenn helped him out and when he got to the front door...he stood straight up rubed the back of his head and, in his normal voice said "What the Fuck was that?!"

mum drove him to the drs in the mean time i txted my sister nicola -she arrived within minutes...but i didnt know what to tell her..there is no way i can describe what id just seen! what seems like hours later mum came back-alone. dad was on his way to the hospital and mum said he had bleeding on the brain i broke down-ive done nursing units i knew that wasnt good- we hearded quickly into the hospital where mum then told us he had actually suffered from a brain anurysm but didnt want to freak my little brother jayden out(he stayed home)

i was a mess-people who have anurysms always die (or so i thought) even though i was 19 at the time i had always believed my parents were invinsible. this wasnt happening....

at the hospital he was in pain-my daddys never in pain it was horrible-the pain killers were making him throw up,which they didnt want because it was putting more blood in his brain, so then he had to take anti-nausea pills, after the C.A.T scan they put him into icu but he was in to much pain i left with nicola. mum later phoned to say that he wouldnt b having surgery that night, and with otago anniversary day the next day they werent sure if a surgeon would be available.

i was wild....my dad could die at any second..while the surgeons are having a day off???!!!! his life is in their hands so best they give him that surgery or ill be abusing EVERY1 who needs to be there 4 the surgery!!

as it was he went to theatre mid afternoon expected 2 hours. i sleeped becoz the wait was torture...i woke up and still heard nothing after 2.5 hours...y was it taking so long?? half an hour later gotta text from mum-all went well-he had a 2-pronged anurysm which is y it took a little longer than expected.

visiting hours at icu are between 12pm &2pm so the next day we went in-2 at a time-we were warned about the tubes that will be comin out of his head and 1 out of his throat but i didnt care-he looked a helluva lot better than sunday morning......he was worried how we would react..especially me because he knew that i got a huge scare from it...when i walked into the room the first thing he said to me was "im sorry my wizza" i almost cried. "you dont need to apologise my daddy u just get better" the 1st visit was 15mins long.

the tubes came out on days 2 and 3 -so he just had the bandage around his head but that was removed a day or so later-we could see the little staples they had used .he had another C.A.T scan because he was taking a while to recouperate..all came back clear and then it hit us...hes a smoker..after the patches were on he was in his own room in the icu.day 5 his staples came out and day 7 he was home with a walking stick, and enough drugs to open his own chemist...and he needed plenty of rest...he was prone to seizures 4 upto 6months and couldnt drive 4 6months (hes a truck driver) luckily though no seizures...


ill continue this "story" from different aspects another day....

the picture below is when he got out of hospital-its his scar

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Thank you for sharing your story wizza. I have to say, it brung tears to my eyes. I couldnt imagine if something like that happened to my daddy, hes also the type that is never in pain.

Hes lucky to have such a great family to take care of him xx

How's yr dad now?

whoops had forgotten i started this

the day dad came out of hospital i was at a funeral (number 7 in a few months-im pretty good at those things now!) anyway,he had his walking stick, morphine and god knows what other drugs-he was taking alot of pain relief. we were told to watch out for stroke symptoms (an anurysm is a form of a stroke) so that on top of possible seizures! he never had a seizure and he has showed no signs of strke symptoms to this day -which is mind-blowing. i do recall one time though,after hed been out for a few days he was talking then suddenly started dribbling and his mouth drooped-of course i panicked and told mum but all seemed to be fine within a few minutes. because he had to medically lose his licence and take it easy he had to go on the sickness benefit-the stress winz put him through after brain surgery was unbelieveable!! thats when we started to notice whenever dad gets stressed the side of his head (it kinda got a dent in it) swells because they didnt put that piece of skull back in-it still happens to this day and probably will do for the rest of his life.

for the first two weeks of dad being discharged i didnt leave the house.i was terrified something would happen to him while i was gone (not that i could probably do much anyway) he spent a lot of time dozing on the couch and i would watch him sleep -to make sure he was still breathing. loud noises were ,and to a point are still, a no-no. Dads not much of a take it easy kind of bloke, so i yelled at him to get his butt inside after deciding to stack wood after a week of being out of hospital (which his workmates got together and gave us 2 truck loads of wood)

thinking back now-at this time i was so dependent on my sleeping pils-had even begun to take two a night just to knock me out-every time id try to sleep the image came back and his words "wizza i dont want to be like this" and if that didnt happen then i was gripped with fear that he would die overnight. those were the worst panic attacks ive ever experienced.

i hated people talking about it aswell-we had a lot of visitors and id have to leave-i hated hearing it all being relayed and i was like that up until about 3months ago.i think that may be why i have been struggling with this up untill this point.

dad is pretty much back to normal these days...took a long time though..hes not as loud and boysterous (sp) as he was ,although if you meet him 4 the first time ud think he is . as the surgeon also said he has a "short fuse" which is expected seen as they cut open his head!! he did experience bouts of depression for a wee while (which we were expecting) and still sometimes does, and hes more emotional these days to. he always wear a beanie in winter now to the cold gives him a headache that pain relief wont fix.

i was talking to him about this a few weeks back-we were both in tears-he said the only thing he remembers clearly of that whole week was when it happened..he said it felt like someone had put an axe through his head and that when he was talking to me he knew what he wanted to do (put his watch on) and knew what he wanted to say but his body wouldnt let him do it-he said he was trapped.

this march was the 2 year ann. of when it happened and on the exact 2year mark, dad jumped in the shower and got a funny headache and for the most part of the morning he was doin strange things-putting things up his sleeve instead of his pockets etc-which we found bizare..phantom pains perhaps??

he returned back to work full time after about a year-but i keep an eye on him-he does to many perk jobs which result in long hours-so i tell him off when need be.

woah this is making me feel heaps better typing this-maybe 2years of holding it in was just enough for me, although i still have my wee moments especially recently but am waiting on a referal to see a psycologist so hopefully that helps a bit more

in saying all this i wana tell yas about the funny things dad done aswell...despite being near deaths door (from what he calls his MINOR EAR SURGERY lol) he was sill a clown...so glad he never lost his humor (he remembers none of it either)

prior to the surgery they (the nurses)woke him every hour to ask his name ,the date and where he was. once he replied he was at the public library?? and told the nurse she was horrible after he got the date wrong as it had just hit midnight.

when one of the nurses was changing his drip he informed her that she was making him sick and that if they put bourban in there instead he would feel so much better lol

another time-while he was at home-he had taken a morphine (dad is completely anti-drugs but with these suckers mum had to count them ta check dad wasnt taking anymore than what he should!) my brother had on his heavy metal music -which dad usually hates- he walked into the lounge listened to the music and said "this is some good shit -refering to the music-wtf?? lol dad stop takin yah morphine!!!! lol

sorry if my spelling is bad aswell-its late(or early?) and cheers 4 letting me rave on about this =)

Hey my dad was the guinea pig for NZ for a Mytral Valve replacement and pacemaker (in the early 70's - probably before most of you were born!). He used to hassle the nurses too... telling them that they could bed bath him anytime they wanted to.... they got back at him by drawing faces on the soles of his feet... hehehehehehe..

He ended up being in hospital on and off for around 4 years out a 5 straight...so he got to know the nurses well...and I got to wear a track between ponsonby and Auckland Hospital... all from around 7years old!

They (the doctors etc) gave dad about 2 years to live after his first op in 1972. He died in 1998 at 84!

Shows how much they knew then!

Cheers

wow my life thats incredible....dr often give the wrong "time to live" (brain bubble -cant remember the word)
and its interesting to know it started in the 70's

Yes it was and incredible time... journey etc.. but as I was very young it gave plenty of opportunity for 'interference' if you get my drift.

I am so pleased that all has panned out for you Tho!!!

hey wizza,

how are you? How is your dad????