Established April 15, 1995
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My name is Janet Paullus and I live in Brazil Indiana; I'm blessed to be in my Fifties and I look forward to seeing many more birthdays. My first marriage sadly lasted for 37 years. I'm now remarried to a wonderful man that keeps teaching me the better things in life. I'm happily retired and in my past I worked in the financial services area for 23 years and have held the titles Of Branch Manager, President of our United Way, 1st Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce, and President of the Realtor's Association. Now that I've retired I enjoy Gardening and preparing for the upcoming Christmas holiday season; gosh I love Christmas!
1 November 2009
I experienced my brain aneurysm bleed January 26, 1992 (Super Bowl Sunday) the age of 40. I had a subarachnoid hemorrhage, probably caused by "fibromuscular dysplasia". I have another aneurysm in my carotid artery in my neck. We keep monitoring it.
I had severe headaches for years. I did not have any migraine symptoms, but these headaches were debilitating. The week before the bleed I had experienced several really horrific headaches; one sent me to the emergency room and another to my Doctor's office for relief. I had several Demerol shots. my doctor told me I needed to see a neurologist, but I honestly thought I was too busy to take the time to do this. As with many experiences, whether I had time or not, this subarachnoid hemorrhage was going to happen. !
I finally threw in the towel in the wee hours of Sunday morning and managed to get to our local hospital. There, the Osteopath on duty behaved horribly and wanted to send me home when I had a seizure and did not cooperate for him. luckily another doctor came on duty and quickly identified the problem. At this time our little hospital did not even have the ability to do CAT Scans, so I was transported to another hospital, who, after loosing me had me transported to Indianapolis Methodist Hospital via Helicopter.
They were just wonderful!!! They clipped the aneurism, and I then had a stroke. After 23 days in neuro-critical care.. I went to a regular room and then home a few days later.
I had to learn to walk again and found my entire right side with no feeling from the stroke I had after surgery.
I had a remarkable recovery..I am very pleased with my growth.. I do have visual issues. since the blood pooled behind my retinas.. I still have double vision and macular damage (the middle of everything is a black blotch. I still do not have much feeling in my right side. but who cares!!!! I am able to do what I want most of the time.
This was a life changing event..I went back to work for 2 years or so and then decided I just did not have the desire to be as competitive as I had been in the past. I had changed.. I see everything differently. I am careful not to say I heard the voice of God.. but when I first woke up, I already knew I was going to be alright - I just felt a warm safe feeling.
Now after all of these years, I divorced my husband of 37 years ..(He said he was tired of taking care of me and ran off with the Widow next door!! Really!!!) I fully enjoyed being unmarried. It gave me the opportunity to clearly see what I wanted for myself in this lifetime. I would not want them to know how much of a favor they did for me!! HA!
Without looking, a wonderful man came into my life; He fits in perfectly with what I had planned for the rest of my years. he does not smoke or drink!! He is good natured and he knows how to "Fix Things"!!! He is a keeper!!!! Ha!!
Anyway, I have found ways during this healing time to be grateful for what function I still have - I think whining about your deficiencies is really a turn off.. We all need to be grateful for what we still have and suck it up and move on. I may be a bit slower and a bit clumsy, but I enjoy my life now more and more each day.
I know God has a plan and there is some reason I survived this event. so I will keep on living a good life and praying that whatever it is I am to do, I am doing. I hope sharing my experience may somehow put someone else on the right track to sanity. Take any adversity you have and find how you can make it into a positive experience!!
Janet Paullus
© Copyright 2009 Janet Paullus
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