One month ago, I was diagnosed with Cerebral Venous Thrombosis. That's a fancy doctor way of saying I have a blood clot on my brain. The day I got out of the hospital, I recorded this.
Here's an update, one month later.
Twice a day, I pop blood thinners. It's important I do this at the same time every day, so I've got special alarms set up on my phone for 9am and 9pm. When I hear Bach, I pop a pill.
Occasionally, I won't be home at that time, but I make sure to have a pill with me. I haven't messed up yet, because this is actually important. These blood thinners ensure the clot doesn't get worse and prevents me from getting more blood clots. I'll be on these things for 12 months to forever.
I have follow-up appointments booked with my hematologist and neurologist, as well as an MRI to rule out brain damage. [insert joke here] The hamatologist is testing my blood to see if I carry a gene that makes blood clots more likely. If I do, I'll likely be on blood thinners for the rest of my life. We'll see!
The neurologist is in charge of my brain, ensuring I don't have a stroke or worse. So far, so good!
As far as symptoms go, a headache returned about three days after I got home from the hospital. That's part of the deal. I get headaches, and treat them with acetaminophen. For a while they were 6's and 7's, but lately they've been 2's, 3's and 4's. I don't even bother popping a Tylenol until it hits 5. This is progress!
Because of the blood thinners, I'm trying to avoid cutting myself and crashing my bike. I'm still biking 30km a day or so, and so far I've been crash-free. In the beginning, I was overly aware of my headaches and wanting to see my brain to ensure there's no bleeding, etc. But now I've adapted to CVT, considering myself lucky that it's highly treatable and I'll survive this.
I've adapted to the blood clot on my brain, but I'm still looking forward to that day a year from now when the neurologist looks at my brain and tells me the clot has been fully absorbed.
