{"id":4929,"date":"2016-01-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/2016\/01\/20\/im-alive-and-im-grateful-to-be-here\/"},"modified":"2017-01-30T16:18:25","modified_gmt":"2017-01-30T23:18:25","slug":"im-alive-and-im-grateful-to-be-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/im-alive-and-im-grateful-to-be-here\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m alive, and I\u2019m grateful to be here\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
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Colleen Keeffe, with daughter Jordan, take a break while hiking at the Great Sand Dunes National Park prior to her brain aneurysm. A year after she was stricken, they are hiking once again. Photo courtesy Colleen Keeffe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently, Colleen Keeffe went for a 10-mile hike on the Ute Trail near Manitou Springs. At one time, that would not have been a big deal for the athletic, outdoorsy mom. This time, it was cause for celebration.<\/p>\n

Just about a year prior to that hike, Colleen, now 56, almost died.\u00a0 She thought she would never walk again. And she feared she had brain damage.<\/p>\n

It was a late September afternoon in 2014 and she was planting mums in her front yard when she was levelled by an excruciating pain in her head.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like a horse had kicked me,\u201d she says. \u201cI knew immediately that I had had an aneurysm burst in my head. Don\u2019t ask me how, but I knew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her daughter, Jordan, then 12, was scared when her mom walked into the house and told her to call 911. Colleen fell to the living room floor and began vomiting. Jordan directed the EMTs to their house in southwest Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was amazing,\u201d Colleen says.\u00a0 Neighbors, seeing the ambulance, came running \u2013 it\u2019s that kind of neighborhood, she says \u2013 and told her not to worry, they\u2019d take care of Jordan for her.<\/p>\n

By the time she got to the Memorial Hospital Emergency Department, her husband, Julius Byrd, had arrived.<\/p>\n

The EMTs and staff at the hospital first thought her pain might be a severe migraine, but Julius was sure it was not. Julius, she says, \u201ccan be very convincing when he wants to be.\u201d At his insistence, they did a CT scan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe doctor took one look\u201d at the scan and put her on a Flight for Life helicopter and airlifted her to University of Colorado Hospital (UCH)\u00a0in Aurora.<\/p>\n

Colleen was right. An aneurysm had burst in her brain. It\u2019s not surprising she guessed the cause. Aneurysms have plagued her family \u2013 her father has an inoperable one and her grandfather died from a ruptured aneurysm and subsequent stroke before she was born.<\/p>\n

Colleen doesn\u2019t remember much of anything after she was stricken.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember part of the ride to the hospital and after that, nothing \u2013 the next time I was really aware of anything was a week later, when I woke up after three surgeries on my brain,\u201d she recalls now.<\/p>\n

The trauma<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Jason Rich, an instructor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a physician\u2019s assistant in the neurosurgery department at UCH, recalls Colleen\u2019s case well.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the guy she still calls when she has questions about her case.<\/p>\n

Rich says that Colleen\u2019s neurosurgeon, Dr. Joshua Seinfeld, had to perform three surgeries on her brain.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had a small and very complex aneurysm that required three surgeries to get the clip in a location that we felt it was treated most appropriately,\u201d Rich says. The problem is not uncommon with very small aneurysms, he adds. \u201cAnd it was in a difficult place to reach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any time someone suffers a burst brain aneurysm, he says, it can be fatal. But the fact that Colleen was relatively awake, alert and responsive after each surgery was a good sign.<\/p>\n

Roughly one-third of such patients \u201cnever make it to the hospital,\u201d he says. Another third experience anything from partial to serious disability for the rest of their lives. And the last third, like Colleen, experience a major recovery.<\/p>\n

Despite what her caretakers say, Colleen\u2019s memory of her first week at University Hospital is a blur.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I was intubated at one point and I pulled the tube out, so they had to put mittens on my hands,\u201d she\u2019s been told.<\/p>\n

When she remembers finally waking up, \u201cthere was a hole in my head, with tubes leading out,\u201d she says. She was so sedated, \u201cI know I had a lot of visitors, but I can\u2019t remember most of them (from that first week).\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t keep my eyes open \u2013 the light hurt them so bad,\u201d even in her darkened room. \u201cI couldn\u2019t read or watch TV. All I could do was lie there.\u201d So it helped having visitors to pass the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018I\u2019m going to die\u2019 and I was actually in so much pain sometimes I wanted to. I was ready to,\u201d she says, because she didn\u2019t think she\u2019d ever recover from what she had been through.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like letting go. It hurt so bad. I was afraid I was going to be a vegetable,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

At some point, she also had a minor stroke, which can happen in cases like this.<\/p>\n

The next phase<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Once Colleen was stable and starting to recover, however, her attitude became more positive, even though she had more obstacles to overcome. Like physical therapy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to learn to walk again,\u201d she says. \u201cI really thought at first I wasn\u2019t going to be able to ever walk again, much less run and hike.\u201d It began with baby steps. Her leg muscles had atrophied and her right hamstring had tightened up so much while she was bed-ridden, she could barely move the leg. Getting back in shape was hard, painful work.<\/p>\n

But there was good news, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had physical therapy, and also occupational therapy, but they soon discovered that I had not had the brain damage we all feared, and so they discontinued the OT,\u201d she says.\u00a0 \u201cIt was such a relief to know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hospital staff was outstanding, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in trauma, it was all about keeping me alive,\u2019 she says, \u201cbut as I got better, the care became \u2013 I don\u2019t know \u2013 gentler? They were all very kind, but also insistent that I do what I needed to do to get well again. I remember what a big day it was when I graduated from the bedpan to the bathroom!\u201d<\/p>\n

And she credits the speed of care, from emergency response to emergency room to operating room, for saving her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all happened really fast,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She also believes that because she was so physically fit before the event, it aided her recovery afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had good muscle memory, so I think I bounced back faster than most people might,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The aftermath<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When she left the hospital in early November of 2014, Colleen was still using aids to walk. She still had lots of outpatient physical therapy ahead of her. It wasn\u2019t until May of 2015 that she felt \u201clike Colleen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now she lifts weights and walks or runs every day. She\u2019s finally up to speed \u2013 as fast as before, but it took many months to get there. \u00a0She and her family still go on hikes.<\/p>\n

She has had some losses, too.<\/p>\n

Already slim, she lost 35 pounds while in the hospital. \u201cI was emaciated and none of my clothes fit,\u201d she says.\u00a0 She had no appetite, though that has gradually come back.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sense of smell and taste are affected,\u201d she says, so food just doesn\u2019t taste as good as it once did. \u00a0\u201cI lost the peripheral vision in the lower part of my left eye and sometimes it affects my depth perception, especially when I hike. I have to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her short-term memory sometimes fails her, \u201cbut that might just be age,\u201d she says laughing.<\/p>\n

The follow-up care has been excellent.\u00a0 She\u2019s \u201cso impressed with the health system\u2019s ongoing support,\u201d even after she left the hospital. They assigned Jason Rich to her to answer questions she might have about what happened to her, and he\u2019s always there with an answer when she calls, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is extraordinary, as are Dr. Seinfeld and the entire staff,\u201d Colleen adds.<\/p>\n

Her near-death experience has left her with a positive outlook.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure, I\u2019ve lost some things. But those are small things in the big picture,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m alive, and I\u2019m grateful to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, Colleen Keeffe went for a 10-mile hike on the Ute Trail near Manitou Springs. At one time, that would not have been a big deal for the athletic, outdoorsy mom. This time, it was cause for celebration. Just about a year prior to that hike, Colleen, now 56, almost died.\u00a0 She thought she would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[96,215],"class_list":["post-4929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-colorado-school-of-medicine","tag-neurosurgery"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018I\u2019m alive, and I\u2019m grateful to be here\u2019 - UCHealth Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Recently, Colleen Keeffe went for a 10-mile hike on the Ute Trail near Manitou Springs. 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