Mind Blown… Literally
I have never been one to get seasonal depression. But I do get EXTREMLY stressed during the holidays. As a perfectionist, I want everything to be just right. The right gifts for everyone. Pinterest perfect dishes made for the family dinners. My little family in matching outfits. Everything perfect.
Let me set the scene for the story:
Thanksgiving 2022. Per usual, only a couple people in my family were helping out with the family dinner. The turkey, 2 sides and a dessert were to be made by me. Because I knew if I didn’t make them, no one would. This is just how it always went since my grandma passed. I got all the food and had it prepped.
The day before Thanksgiving I got the worst headache of my life. I literally could not stand up straight. The only time the pain would ease any, was when I would stand in the hottest shower. So, I spent that entire day going back and forth between the shower and sleeping.
I have never been one to throw up. TMI, I know, but even when intoxicated or down with a stomach bug, I always had to MAKE myself throw up. That day I threw up. Multiple times. That’s when I started feeling like maybe something was wrong.
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Thanksgiving morning, I was up at 5 am to put the turkey in. I got everything else ready while walking around like the hunchback of Notre Dame. I told my wife I wasn’t going to dinner, because I needed to lay back down.
While she was gone, I laid in bed and did some research. I text my mom and told her how I was feeling, and she said maybe it was a sinus headache. I went on google and spent 20 minutes searching for something that matched all of my symptoms. Right before my wife got home, I came across a Reddit post about a ruptured brain aneurysm. I told my wife that I needed to go to the ER.
When we got there, I told them that my brain was bleeding. They told me that I needed to stay off google. Which, fair enough, most of the time it will tell you that you are dying over every single thing. But I KNEW. They said maybe it was something with my wisdom teeth, but I kept pushing, insisting that my brain was bleeding.
Finally, they took me for a CT and sure enough, there was blood on my brain. I was rushed to a hospital in a bigger city where we found out that I had large aneurysm that had ruptured and caused me to have a hemorrhagic stroke. The first hospital didn’t take me seriously, because I had no deficits.
After almost 2 weeks in the hospital and 2 coils on my aneurysm, I left knowing that I couldn’t handle all the stress I had been putting on my body.
I knew that stress was bad for you, but I didn’t know it could kill you.
