The Worst Headache of My Life: Brain Aneurysm Survivor Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe brain aneurysms, burst and unburst, and the months and years after them. Some began with a sudden headache under a barbell, at a wedding reception or three weeks after a birth. Others were found by chance after a minor crash, a drooping eyelid, a whooshing in one ear or a bout of dizziness. Contributors include a truck driver, a hairdresser, a surgical nurse, a litigation partner, a church choir director and a cattle rancher eleven hours from a neurosurgeon, from Tulsa and Bengaluru to Cork, Johannesburg and Perth. Writers describe coiling, clipping and open surgery, a permanent drain tube under the skin, a second aneurysm found mid-stay, a retreatment five years on, and the choice to watch rather than treat, including one man's decision at eighty-two. Families write from the recliner by the bed, from a kitchen floor beside a fifteen-year-old, and from the next cubicle. Daily life brings hospital bills, losing the car keys after a seizure, aphasia, relearning the kitchen, a shaved head, running and flying again. The harder accounts are plain: three weeks with no memory, new weakness on day six, deep fatigue, unfamiliar anger, fear of every headache, and fellow patients who did not survive.

Who it's for

For survivors of a ruptured or unruptured brain aneurysm, people weighing whether to treat or to watch, and the partners, parents, children and friends who waited outside the intensive care unit.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 269 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.