For several months I suffered momentary eyesight blurring, like I couldn't quite focus. Then I went skiing and on the drive home I got double vision and it did not resolve. I was able to pull over and taken out my contacts, but when that did not resolve it, my husband took over the driving and I closed one eye at a time (vision in each eye separately remained the same as before--they just wouldn't focus together). Next morning the symptoms were gone. However they came back in the evening so I called Kaiser (my HMO) and got an ophthalmology appt. for the next day, when I was scheduled to start a new job. The eye doctor saw something and had an MRI or x-ray done, which showed, as she said, either an inoperable tumor or an aneurysm deep in my brain, pushing on the eye muscle and nerve and causing the double vision. I was put in an ambulance and transported to the neurological hospital an hour away. Further tests showed a large (18mm) aneurysm on the carotid artery with another smaller one in the other c.a., but in the neck rather than the brainstem. Luckily, further tests showed that if the an. ruptured, I could function pretty well if they had to close off that carotid artery to the right side of the brain! Very scary. Then they put me under and packed the aneurysm as well as they could. It is holding for now and more surgery is just as risky as not having it. So I focus on being so lucky to be here, welcoming my first grandchild six months later, and seeing my two youngest (twins) begin college. It's scary, but I focus mainly on gratitude and I'll wear a helmet if I go skiing again. Plus with two kids in college I have to go back to work even though I'm retired and over 65 now.

On Jan 26/11, I was washing my car at the car wash. As I bent down to scrub it, I felt dizzy, weak and nauseated. I got back into my car and I knew that something was seriously wrong. I didn't finish washing my car. I drove myself to the hospital and felt like I was going to black out along the way. I did not have any pain in my head the way other people describe it. The doctor gave me a CT scan and prepared to transfer me to a London hospital after the diagnosis was determined. There I had a four-hour surgery and four coils put into the ruptures. They weren't sure if I was going to make it or not. I felt really good in a few days and suffered no side effects.

I was recently diagnosed with a 12mm unruptured brain aneurysm. I had been suffering with chronic vertigo and neck stiffness a long time prior to my diagnosis. I had the aneurysm stented, but I still have neck stiffness and chronic vertigo. My short term memory is terrible and I keep dropping things. My doctors and I are trying to figure out what to do next.

My name is Brian and I am 47. I have had two brain aneurysm clippings so far. It's been one heck of a ride. I'm almost normal again with only a few minor side effects /vertigo/slight incoherence which seems very minor. There was no warning it just came on while I was at work last year I felt as though my blood was boiling in my head. I received two operations to clip the aneurysms. The neurosurgeons were fantastic. I have to have regular MRIs and angiograms for the rest of my life.

On August 11, 2011 my mother had a very bad headache. An aneurysm burst inside her head. She had just returned from paying her bills. My mother, father, and myself were at their home when I noticed she was crying and holding her head. She was telling us how bad the pain was when her speech became slurred then she was babbling. She passed out. I called 911, it seemed to take forever, so I called an off duty friend who is an EMT he was there in minutes. He had done CPR on her 2 times. Once we got to the hospital, they operated almost immediately. They inserted a coil. She was in ICU for about 3 weeks. She recovered really well.

On 3rd February, my mother showed symptoms of severe headache and vomiting. She was diagnosed with pcom aneurysm rupture and treated with coiling. Later, she was on medication, but there was no follow up by the doctor and she died 28 days after the surgery with the same symptoms. She was in a rural place and 3 days before her death, we asked the doctor if she need to be taken to him or a neurologist and he said 'not necessary'. It was he who saved her life and it was his overconfidence which led to her death.

My brain aneurysm was coiled and sealed.

My doctors found a large brain aneurysm in 1995 and I was operated on in 1996. It was successful as far as the surgery, but then infection set in and I almost died. Now I started having headaches and went to emergency room and another aneurysm was found on the carotid artery. I don't think I can face another surgery.