Mallorca: A Family Celebration and a Punch to the Head
This website rarely features posts of a personal nature but on this occasion I have made an exception because it could save a life. Don’t worry there was no real punch!
It had all started so well, friends and family meeting at a restaurant in Mallorca for a family celebration of my stepdaughter and her husband’s birthdays and their wedding anniversary. Yes, they were born on the same day and got married on the same day!
A nice new restaurant in the Génova area was the location. After the greetings we all sat down for the meal, the children at one end, the girls in the middle and six boys at the other end. The slightly confusing menu offered up a ‘Tomahawk’ steak for six at 130 euros, so you can guess what the boys ordered!
Everything was going well, the steak duly arrived looking very impressive when the drama started.
The Americans call it a sucker punch, ‘a quick punch delivered without warning; an unexpected blow’. Well this one really caught me out! An unbelievably sudden, severe headache, so intense it is frequently described as the worst headache people have ever experienced.
It was a Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH), a bleeding into the subarachnoid space around the brain. It is a rare, life threatening condition which can occur quickly, and is often the result of head trauma. In my case fortunately this was not the case, but it was not exactly good news!
Luckily we were only five minutes away from a hospital where I was I whisked straight into Intensive Care to spend a week being treated, scanned and monitored, followed by another nine days on a ward. A sobering experience indeed.
So any positives? Yes, thankfully I am now at home and feeling a little better, but realise I have to take it easy for quite some time. It also means I can update my medical experience bucket list with new ticks against, Angiogram, Intensive Care, C.T. Scan and M.R.I.!
Seriously though, this is a condition that, in my ignorance, I had never come across. So if you see someone holding their head as if it going to explode, ask them how bad is the pain out of 10. If they answer 10 or more, they are more than likely to need immediate medical intervention. It could be a family member, friend or complete stranger, hesitation could cost them their life.
My grateful thanks to my family and friends here on the island and in the U.K. for their support and love.
And a special thank you to the Doctors and nurses in ICU and Radiography at Clínica Juaneda in Palma and in particular their Neuro team.
Adrian
P.S. I never did get to taste that steak!
P.P.S. You know who your real friends are when you get cards like this!
