Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Those who have had a bleeding or ruptured aneurysm usually describe
one or several initial symptoms such as a headache, feeling sick, sensory or
visual disturbances. Headache is almost always mentioned, and frequently
described as 'the worst headache of my life'. This very common description
that is both illustrative and lacking in details is however supplemented by
more exhaustive descriptions of experiences of a bleeding or rupturing
aneurysm in other illness narratives on the website, as in the following
quotation:
I felt like something was trying to come out of my head, like something
was going from the right side of my head to the left and was actually
going to come out, there was so much pressure.
This quotation gives us a quite certain image of how it feels when an
aneurysm is rupturing. We may on the basis of this description vaguely enter
into the feeling that something is trying to come out of our head and presses
on the skull from within. The woman's description of the increased pressure
can however also be associated with an explosion. Also other storytellers
depict their symptoms using an explosion metaphor, as in the two following
cases:
One month ago today, my brain exploded. At least, that is what it felt like
... I felt a slight pressure in my head and then this incredible headache
hit me hard. I didn't know what it was, but I knew there was something
terribly wrong.
I bent down to tie my shoe and suddenly there was an explosion in my
head. I immediately called 911 for an ambulance, explained to them my
condition and shortly after I passed out.
A lot of things may explode: an egg can explode in a microwave oven or a
bottle with aerated content can explode in the sun. But the most well-known
icon of explosion is a bomb. And quite rightly, you will fi nd authors on
the website who go the whole way and use the bomb metaphor when they
describe their experiences. One of them expresses herself in the following
way:
All of a sudden it felt that a bomb went off in the back of my head, A
truly terrible pain. The worst part was I could not understand what was
happening to me, I felt this was far more than my normal migraine. I
then passed out in the shower.
The social representation of the ruptured aneurysm as an exploding bomb,
which emerges among the narratives, appears to give meaning to the 'cold'
aneurysm as well as to the life-threatening unpredictable qualities attributed
