A severe headache, an unexpected moment and a situation that could change everything. Thus began one of the most difficult health challenges for the renowned moderator Bledi Strakosha, who a few days ago suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was hospitalized for 12 days.
To recount this difficult experience and the moments he experienced, Strakosha was invited to the show "Rudina." He shared his entire journey, from the moment the first symptoms appeared, to the diagnosis and surgical intervention.
According to the moderator, it all happened very quickly and was a shocking experience. However, today he considers himself lucky and sees this event as an opportunity to look at life differently.
“I now consider it a second life.”
Strakosha said that an unusual headache alarmed him just before midnight when he was alone at home.
"It was a very bad moment because it was August 29, the end of August and the weekend, where everyone was rushing to take those last vacations. Meanwhile, that weekend, I don't know why, I felt like I had to stay home and calm down.
Around 11:30 at night, I get up from the couch to go to the kitchen to cook something, but since I'm a bit impulsive by nature and, to be honest, my movements are faster than they should be, and as soon as I get up from the couch, I start to get a stabbing headache, first in my forehead, then it continues throughout my head all the way to the base of my neck.
And the only time I had ever experienced that kind of pain was so intense that later, when I described it to my sister, I said: I felt like killing myself just to get rid of that headache, it was that terrible."
After calling the emergency room, Strakosha says that doctors arrived at his home and performed some measurements, but at that moment the situation was not considered a case that required hospital care. The next day, however, he decided to go to the emergency room and examinations revealed that it was a cerebral hemorrhage.
"At first, they didn't give him a name. On the phone from the emergency room, they told me that he had also contracted a virus that gave him a very strong headache, but I felt very okay and my blood pressure wasn't that high, 15 over 10. I went to the emergency room and they did a blood test first and then we did a contrast scan that was necessary for this diagnosis. After they did the scan, I saw the portraits of three young men who were frowning and, after telling me 'don't move at all', they came and took me away in a chair. It was a swollen vein that had probably burst, they didn't give me this information."
After the expensive surgery that was performed on his head, Strakosha expresses his gratitude to the doctors who managed to save his life. For him, this experience has also brought a strong reflection on the life and fate of those who face the same situation.
"I feel very lucky and I feel very sorry for those who don't make it because the percentage of people who don't make it, because the percentage is very small of those who make it, but even the people who make it have later consequences and this is an even greater misfortune. Your life changes completely in a day."
It is for this reason that the moderator has chosen to share his story publicly. He says he wants his personal experience to serve as a message of awareness for all those who tend to neglect unusual signs that their body displays.
"There is always the idea that it will pass by taking a paracetamol, but we never take seriously some symptoms that appear to us, which are unusual. We neglect them, because we are sometimes afraid and this can lead us to losing our lives. I also went at the instigation of my sister."
He stated that he will now begin to live a healthier life by avoiding tobacco consumption, which he said will be very difficult since he has been a smoker since the age of 18.