Whenever I get sick Alison has to nag me into going to the doctor.
This is because the doctor always tells me the same three things:
* It's a virus
* I can't give you anything
* That'll be $20

So last Wednesday when I got a splitting headache I just loaded up on painkillers and went back to work.
Ali said Go to the doctor, I said I'm fine. On Thursday it had faded and wasn't too bad. But on Friday morning
it came back with a vengeance - we were up feeding our 3 week old son and I just lay there in pain.

Since we already had an appointment with the paediatrician it seemed silly not to see the doctor too, so I made
an appointment. He checked me out and said that it was probably muscular, but to go to the ER just to be sure.
The way it came on instantly made him suspect an aneuruysm.

A CAT scan and a lumbar puncture later, and I'm lying in the ICU, looking at a few days in Stanford hostpital with a
subarachnoid haemhorrage. They have run various tests and have ruled out an arterial aneurysm and a tumour
(though they want to do another CAT scan tomorrow just to be sure) and are saying it was probably a venous aneurysm.

There's no indication as to the cause; I don't have hypertension or smoke or do drugs. It's just something that could
happen to any one of us, and it's just as likely to happen to you as to repeat in me. The good news is that I don't
need to change my diet or lifestyle. The bad news is that the headaches will persist until my body has cleared out
the haemhorrage, which may take a month. Thank heavens for Vicodin.

So the moral of the story is, if you have a splitting headache take it seriously. Go see the doctor.

Dave, sorry to hear about this. Does this mean it's a blood clot in your head or is that the other aneurysm? I'm confused but am glad you will be better. It's good that your doctor suspected something serious rather than sending you home to sleep it off or something.

My 28 year-old cousin had what I think is the other kind of aneurysm and randomly collapsed at work one day. He was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. He's fine now but with a large scar on his skull from the surgery. He said there was no symptoms at all just passing out and boom, he woke up in a hospital room. These are scary things.

You sure it is not a spasm headache? These are muscle related and are viscious and evil and very hard to diagnose and treat correctly.

The CAT scan showed signs of bleeding and the lumbar puncture came out the colour of Kosta Browne Rose instead of being clear.
No signs of clotting that I know of which I believe is A Good Thing. They are saying the cause is "idiopathic" which means they have
no effing clue. Gotta love doctors, they've got a word for just about everything.

Dave,
Very sorry to hear of your condition. I hope it clears sooner than estimated.

Who gives a flip about your head?  What are your thoughts on the Wanderers this season? 

Hope you get to feeling better soon. 

I got discharged and the Trotters beat Fulham 2-1 aet in the Carling Cup. Time for a drink...

No seizures or other neuro anomalies
Thank your lucky stars and your spouse.  Wishing you the best.

All the best. Recover quickly.

Dave, glad your out of the hospital and OK. I missed this thread completely.

News update: I've been offline for a few days as I was in Las Vegas at a convention. I'm back now - survived two flights and a week of work.
If you want to read about it, look here
Didn't do too great at the tables, but I'm pretty sure I'm only down ~$50 overall. However I did win the contest for best video, which gets me the choice of a Sun Workstation, Macbook or an Epson PowerLite Projector!

Never got to Lotus of Siam, but did eat at Roy's and at Daniel Boloud in Wynn's - both on other people's expense accounts

Dave! I missed ya in Vegas? Just glad to see you're feeling ok; this kind of a thread always hits home when you have kids...

On the bright side, I got to eat at B&B after doing ok on the tables. Next best thing to someone else's expense account :-D