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It was an ordinary day in my busy life, I had just collected my 18 month old son from his grandparents after a long day at work. I took him upstairs and remember thinking how cute he looked in his little all in one pyjamas. I went to the kitchen to make his bottle up; it was a cold December night and I just wanted to warm him up and get him settled.

I put the kettle on an then "wham", I actually turned around to see who it was that had hit me across the back of the head with a bat. My head hurt more than anything I had ever known and all I wanted to do was to go to sleep. Somehow, I dont really remember how I got back upstairs to my son. He was sat up in my bed waiting for me, he saw me and his face dropped - he just said "mammy?"

I will always as long as I live remember that look on his little face (I have tears as I am writing this).
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I had just turned 40. One month later whilst off work, I was spending the week in Perth at my wee sister's with my two kids and my nephew. On 14 October, they went for pizza and I went shopping because I don't like pizza. Shopping done and in the car I went to the toilet and felt a sharp pain from my left ear to my head. I left the toilet and walked to my car, sweating and panicking that I wouldn't make it. I got inside the car and sat panicking then had to jump out to throw up. People just watched me (obviously thought I had a hangover). I then managed to phone my sister and she sent her partner to pick me up. He took me to her flat and I lay on the toilet floor dying. Because of the pains in the back of my neck I asked her to take me to hospital. NHS24 thought it was possibly a migraine so they treated that and the sickness feeling and I went home to my sister's (no recollection).

My partner travelled from Kirkintilloch to Perth by train and took me to my own house on the Thursday evening (15th) and i spent the night with my 2 wee girls with a sore head and feeling sick. Friday morning (16th) I phoned the doctor and got an emergency appointment, then my 7 year old phoned my sister in law and asked her to take me (I had my last ciggy at that point but didnt realise it would be my last). The doctor did a thorough examination then gave me some medication but asked me to phone back if i wasn't any better in the afternoon. I slept whilst my 10 yr old tried to get me to eat, but I thought it's the weekend and I cant feel like this all weekend so I phoned the doctor she suggested that I go to hospital because she thought I might have a bleed. I when to hospital and spent the night scared.
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Wow! so glad to have happened by this brilliant website, can't wait to share it with my family!

Well here goes ... I had a SAH on 26/5/10, totally out of the blue, had never heard of them before, except to think they happened to "other people" and that you died!!!!.well what a learning experience the last month has been and until I found this website was starting to think the hard part was being home this past 11 days.

What I've been through since then, the SAH seems a bit like "wee buns". A lot of it is hazy ...all I remember is as a very active fit 40yr old I was planning on walking to my local post office on a lovely sunny morning, before coming home having a coffee and then going for a treck across fields with the dog. What actually happened was I saw my daughter off to school (don't remember) picked up the letters to post and collapsed in the front hall with the most awful pain in my head and neck I've ever had.
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As I sit here, about 8 weeks after my stroke, I feel quite tearful. Not because I have a physical disability. Not because I am unable to cope. I am glad to be alive. I live life to the full. But because I am different. I am no longer the person I was and it is taking more time than I expected to get used to it.

I have thought long and hard about what happened in the weeks leading up to my stroke. There was a redundancy process at work. (I am a teacher at a secondary school. Teach Textiles, Food Technology and Art) There were the normal stresses of working with teenagers. There was a relationship with highs and lows. There were my two children (10 and 12). There was the normal balancing of work and leisure and family time. A week before my stroke I was at my GP's for something unrelated. My blood pressure was something like 130 over 85. No worries there..
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DAY 1 - I never thought that we would fall out of love and I still don’t think we will. Back in May when you first got ill I held your hand not knowing whether or not you were going to make it. I thought ahead to a future without you and I saw an emptiness that still haunts me. Nobody told me how hard the days following this one would be.May 21stWe arranged in the morning to meet Chris and Tracey in the evening. It was a hot day and I had arranged for Chris (Tall) to score some weed for you. Wee Chris was at the house as we had just finished training and Mike was away to his work. Plan was that I was going to go meet an old friend in town for a coffee. when Mike finished work he was going to join me and Chris at The Art Cafe, I would meet Bob and they would go off together and rejoin me later.

So Chris and myself ate jerk chicken in the garden, Louis had gone off to Beckys for the night and you were in the garden gardening. It was sunny and we were looking forward to weed cakes and going out!
All was well as I kissed you, told you I love you and set off to town. Just the same as I always did. I ‘knew’ that when I got back our life would be just as normal as it was when I left. After all bad thigs dont happen to us. Not us the happiest little family around. Two upwardly mobile young people, good careers, a beautiful son and a lovely house. Nothing could happen to us and no-one could touch us. Unstoppable.
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Hi! I am so glad you are all here. I've read through so many stories and my heart is touched, as I too, suffered a SAH after a ruptured brain aneurysm followed by a silent stroke after the coiling procedure! Yes, I am thankful to be alive and have had no major neurological defecits.

My story is much like all of yours. I've been a masssage therapist for 15 years and for the last 10, have worked in a clinic where we treat people who've been in auto accidents. On Jan. 27, 2010, I went to work as usual. I was feeling fine for the most part. Around 10:30 am, I started feeling a little funny and thought maybe I needed to eat something, as I hadn't had breakfast yet. So I ate 1/2 my sandwich and continued with work.

As I was massaging my patient, I began to feel a bit disoriented and my vision seemed out of focus. I kept massaging, telling myself the feeling would pass. The feeling continued and things quickly went down hill from there. I could hear a whooshing sound in my head and then a loud pop, like an explosion of sorts. As the "pop" occurred, I felt as if someone had cracked a bat across the back of my head. I was still massaging the patient, wild thoughts going through my head and trying to maintain control of myself! I knew something was very wrong.
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