MY HEALTH EXPERIENCE:IT WAS during Mass on Christmas Day 2005 that I heard my daughter's voice clearly in my ear, saying: "Mammy, something is wrong with your head." I was extremely lucky to have received that warning because it turned out that I had two aneurysms in my brain that could have caused untold damage if they had burst.
The voice I heard was that of my daughter, Ciara, who had died in 1989 at the age of seven after a battle with leukaemia.
You never get over the death of a child, you just learn to live with that person not being around – and I have always felt Ciara close to me in spirit.
She was four when she was diagnosed with leukaemia, and we spent the next three years travelling up and down to Crumlin hospital. It’s not easy to watch your child go through those awful tests and treatments, and it was a very tough time for us at the end.
Ciara was supposed to go to the UK for a bone marrow transplant but the staff were not available to travel with her from Crumlin so her transplant was delayed, and in the meantime she had a relapse.
I met many politicians at the time to try to fight for her rights and it saddens me to see that things have not changed in a lot of our hospitals since, particularly for children.
When I got that message at Mass on Christmas Day it was a very busy and stressful time for me at work. I had set up my own childcare company, Grovelands Childcare in the Midlands, and had just finished purpose building two large facilities in Athlone and Tullamore, and started building one in Mullingar.
I had increased my workforce from me and one other person to me and now 73 others. There was a lot going on and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed at the time.
When I came out of Mass, my vision was slightly distorted and I couldn’t drive the car home. The vision distortion continued over Christmas and one morning I opened my eyes and was seeing double. My doctor sent me to the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin, where an MRI scan showed up an aneurysm.
I was sent home to Glasheen in Athlone for six weeks and told to sit as still as I could until I could get a bed in Beaumont Hospital.
I was warned not to bend over or make sudden movements and to relax as best I could. I’m lucky to live in a beautiful country area surrounded by nature and I constantly visualised myself being better and at home after the surgery.
When I was admitted to Beaumont they found a second aneurysm and I had open brain surgery, during which they clipped both aneurysms. I remember being wheeled down to theatre and the song Livin’ on a Prayer was in my head. There was the fear of not coming back out the same way I went in.
However, the surgery went very well and the only side effect I have been left with is poor memory, which can be extremely frustrating. I could not drive for a year after the operation, so I had to work from home as best I could. We had just invested a huge amount of money in the business so there was huge pressure on us. My husband, Ronan, who was a tax consultant, gave up his job in 2006 to step in and run the business.
In the middle of all of this I was diagnosed with the rheumatic disease Ankylosing Spondylitis, which, strange as it sounds, was actually a relief.
For 25 years since I was pregnant with my first child I had suffered from terrible pain and stiffness in my back, but had been told I would just have to live with it. Many specialists later, I was finally diagnosed by Dr Frances Stafford at the Blackrock Clinic.
At least now I know what it is. I’m in remission and hopefully I will stay this way, but there are treatments and I will cross that bridge if it comes to it.
I was making a good recovery from the brain surgery when out of the blue I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I didn’t find a lump but I noticed a slight pull on the skin over the nipple of my left breast. A couple of weeks later I was sunbathing on holidays when I noticed that the skin in this area looked like a honeycomb.
As soon as I came home I went for a mammogram and a biopsy in St Vincent’s Private, which showed up a small tumour on my breast. I had surgery in 2009 to remove the tumour and a second surgery to remove all 27 lymph nodes from my left arm.
This has left me with lymphedema in my left arm, which is most uncomfortable. If it was not for this I would forget I ever had breast cancer. I can’t wear any jewellery on my left arm anymore, including my engagement and wedding rings, which I had worn since I got married at 18.
During my radiotherapy treatment I was extremely tired and knew I would not get any rest in hospital. I have private health insurance, and after doing my own investigation I found out the company was prepared to pay €100 for me to stay in a hotel per night compared with the €1,000 it would have cost if I stayed in hospital per night.
I stayed in the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel in Killiney during all my radiotherapy treatments and they looked after me very well. I swam every day in the pool, walked in the gardens and spent time just chilling out by myself.
I am on medication and will be for another couple of years. The medication, along with my memory problems, can cause brain confusion and feelings of being overwhelmed at times, which is not easy to deal with.
I still work full-time, if not during the day then at night, and I have built up a great team around me. We have more than 400 children under our care in our five facilities now and I am 35 years in the childcare business this year. I have just been nominated for Westmeath Businesswoman of the Year by Westmeath Chamber, which is a huge honour.
It has been a challenge for me to make lifestyle and diet changes and to build exercise and relaxation into my routine. I find it very difficult to put myself first and say “No” when somebody rings from work looking for me.
However, I do a yoga class now every Wednesday morning, I go for regular 20-minute walks and do relaxation exercises. I am feeling quite well at the moment, trying to stay positive and keep the stress levels down. It’s all about trying to find a balance.
In conversation with Michelle McDonagh
BRAIN ANEURYSM: THE FACTS
AN INTRACRANIAL aneurysm is a bulge in a blood vessel in the brain caused by a weakness in the vessel wall. As the blood passes through the weakened blood vessel, the blood pressure causes it to bulge outwards like a balloon.
Most brain aneurysms will cause only noticeable symptoms if they rupture.
This will then trigger an extremely serious condition known as a subarachnoid haemorrhage, where the bleeding caused by the ruptured aneurysm can cause extensive brain damage.
It is difficult to estimate exactly how many people are affected by a brain aneurysm, because in most cases they cause no symptoms and pass undetected.
Some experts believe it could be as high as one in 20 people, while others think the figure is much lower at about one in 100 people – the number of aneurysms that actually erupt is much lower.
Treatment usually involves surgery to coil or clip the affected blood vessel to prevent rupture. Risk factors include hardening and narrowing of the arteries, smoking and high blood pressure. Aneurysms are also known to run in families.
