Its not just a headache

I arrived at A&E in SouthMead, the receptionist looked at me to say “why are you here?” however, the triage nurse recognised that I wasn’t right; reassured me that she will get the doctor to see me ASAP. We met the junior doctor who was very lovely. He went to get the neurology consultant and although he thought it was Nothing serious he said he would send me for a CAT scan as a precautionary measure.
 After waiting for quite some time, the consultant returned with a long face. The CAT scan showed swelling on the brain, which meant the original diagnosis was wrong. The consultant was unsure why there was swelling on the brain which meant I needed to stay overnight. There was not any spare beds in the neurology ward, so I slept on a trolley in a side room off A&E, attached to drips. My mum went to tell my daughters at 1AM and came back with my dad at 4AM to keep me company.

The start of my journey

My name is Julie Harvey, this is how I think my friends would describe me:

As a 48 year old fitness fanatic who completely lives life to the full. On the eccentric side and I will laugh at myself before anyone else does.  I’ve completed a 26 mile walk, a triathlon as well as a long distance open water swim. 6 miles.  On the academic side I have to work at things, so punctuation may not be perfect….

The start of the journey begins 3 weeks ago when I came home from work on Friday and I went out for a meal with my friend Julie and daughter Sophie to Pizza Express. I had this horrendous headache, but Sophie was excited to go out so we did. I must point out at this point, I had been having headaches at work prior, but I had just put it down to a bit of stress from work and from Sophie struggling at College. 

While we were out, we chatted about life as Julie has been unsettled recently. The headache got worse throughout the night, however I just put it down to being worried about Julie. I continued to feel ill throughout the weekend. However I was preparing myself to go to work Monday, I work Part time on activities in a nursing home and was doing extra time. On Monday morning, I was ready to leave to go to work, and I threw up. I knew this wasn’t right so made a doctor’s appointment first thing.



Bantham Swoosh Swim 2016

To start with they said it was a virus but by Thursday it was still no better. The doctors still believed it was a virus and I was given anti- sickness tablets. Also phoned up out of hours doctors surgery in the middle of the night as the headaches were so bad. I had not been eating due to a fear of being sick. During that week the headaches continued however the following Monday I went back to work and did a full week with headaches on and off.

Although I am training for an event I could not bring myself to do any of my usual exercises due to feeling so bad.

Again, the weekend came and I didn’t feel right. Headaches were still bad but stopped moaning as I thought it was stress. I felt like jumping off the roof as the pain was so bad one evening. I didn’t know how to process it as the headaches were so bad and I was still not sure what it was.

On Sunday everyone went to lunch at Mum and dads I stayed at home as knew I wasn’t right. All I wanted to do was put myself in a dark room and hear no noise and just cry or do anything for relief and escape the pain. My husband, John, flew to Israel on Sunday for work. If we thought something was really wrong he wouldn’t have gone.

I went to work on Monday, I stayed for a couple of hours and then realised things were not right. My mum phoned the doctor who advised to go straight to A&E.