Somehow, she managed to finish her hour-long session. Back home, she went upstairs to shower and started seeing double. The pain in her head, the vomiting, and the double vision were all warning signs described by the American Stroke Association of a brain aneurysm that had ruptured. Mureddu, 57, knows this now, but she didn’t know it at the time. The pain didn’t go away, but she didn’t get medical attention for two weeks. She even went back to the gym. It was her trainer who encouraged her to call her doctor. As soon as the doctor saw the images from her brain scan, he said, “You have an aneurysm and have to see a surgeon right away.” Given the diagnosis, Mureddu and her husband, Chuck, went online to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation and found an experienced surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston for the operation. But it would be another month until she was wheeled into the operating room. Her surgeon explained that when she had felt pain in her head, the aneurysm had bled. He didn’t expect it to bleed again in the next four weeks, and he needed the time to study the best way to proceed with the surgery. Mureddu’s aneurysm was considered “giant” at 3.1 centimeters. Any aneurysm over 2.5 centimeters — one inch — is termed giant, according to MGH’s Neurovascular Center. Hers also had veins going through it, which meant the surgeon wouldn’t be able to just clip it off. He would have to do two bypasses. Although she’d had no symptoms until that day at the gym, her doctors suspected Mureddu had had the brain aneurysm for some time. She had a history of 23 years of migraines, she says. “I would get 12 to 18 migraines a month where I would get sick. But I lived in three states during those 23 years, and no one ordered a scan of my head.” It’s important to note, though, that the majority of headaches do not require brain scans. The causes of migraines and tension headaches are often not revealed through such tests, which are also costly and expose you to radiation.
Be Aware of These Brain Aneurysm Symptoms
You can indeed have a brain aneurysm and not know it, says Mark Bain, MD, a neurosurgeon with the Cerebrovascular Center at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. If the aneurysm has not ruptured, it typically causes no symptoms, according to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation. See a doctor immediately if you have any of these symptoms, Dr. Bain says, which may mean an aneurysm is pressing on your brain or nerves:
Headache in one spotPain above or behind your eyeDilated pupilsBlurry or double visionWeakness and numbnessSlurred speech
If the aneurysm ruptures and blood spills into the space around your brain, you could have what you’d consider the worst headache of your life. “Some patients describe it as being hit in the back of a head by a sledgehammer,” Bain says. Other symptoms include those that Mureddu experienced: nausea, vomiting, and sudden blurred or double vision, as well as a stiff neck, dizziness, sensitivity to light, and drooping eyelids. You also could have a stroke, notes the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. If the aneurysm doesn’t rupture, your doctor may recommend treatment or careful monitoring. Once it ruptures, it should be treated with either open surgery or endovascular surgery, which is done within the blood vessels. “We’ve taken a page out of the heart doctor’s book,” Bain says. In some cases, a surgeon can thread a catheter through the femoral artery to the brain and place coils to seal off the aneurysm. Once you’ve had a brain aneurysm, you have a 10 to 15 percent chance of having another one, according to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, and Bain says this is more likely if you’re younger than 50. “Elderly patients typically don’t get another," he says. In addition, if you smoke and have an aneurysm, it’s more likely to rupture, Bain says.
Successfully Recovering From an Aneurysm
Mureddu’s recovery from her surgery in April 2013, two months after the rupture, was long and arduous. She had to relearn to speak and to walk. Determined, she took a good 10 months until she was nearly back to her old self. Today, she continues to manage the condition by eating a healthy diet and working out at the gym at least three days a week. She also makes sure that her brain is “as active as it always was,” says Mureddu, who works in finance. In her free time she plays solitaire, Scrabble, and does Sudoku to help her mind stay sharp, and she checks in with a therapist and health coach regularly.
