Last spring, Bethany Sterling got a diagnosis she never expected.
At 35, Sterling was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, which, with the help of a local physician, she has been fortunate enough to move on from and continue to lead a full life.
For a few months in early 2015, Sterling had had many headaches – headaches that she felt were unusual.
The headaches Sterling had were constant, and she says she would wake up in the morning with the same headache she had gone to bed with.
The headaches lead to Sterling feeling bad all over her body – all day, every day.
In March 2015, Sterling started having what she called visual disturbances.
Sterling, a public health instructor at the United States Air Force School of Air Space Medicine, says that at first, she couldn't tell if only one eye or both eyes were affected by the issue. She knew all the symptoms she was experiencing weren't normal, but she wasn't sure what was causing them.
Near the end of April 2015, Sterling started going to see her primary care physician (PCP) about all the problems she had been having in the months prior.
Being an advocate for her health and playing an active role as part of her own health care team, Sterling started seeing her PCP weekly because she knew something wasn't right.
Her PCP ordered a CAT scan, but the results came back normal.
Sterling tried her best to continue to do her job and go about her home life with her husband, Quinton; stepson Jacobi, 14; and daughter, Mia, 6, as normally as she could with the ongoing headaches and vision problems she just couldn't get past.
Then, on May 27, 2015, Sterling went to work, but her symptoms had gotten even worse.
Once at an emergency room, Sterling says another CAT scan was done. Only this time, a large mass was found behind her right eye.
After being evaluated by a neurologist, Sterling was told her eye was bulging and that the pressure was the cause of her eye drooping. There was not a neurosurgeon at the first hospital Sterling visited, so she was transported to Miami Valley Hospital (MVH), part of Premier Health.
And Sterling didn't know until after this diagnosis that the aneurysm had been there a month earlier when she had her first CAT scan. But it was so small incredibly small that it was missed.
“It grew very large in a short amount of time, which is strange,” she says.
Even now, no one can explain exactly why Sterling – who had no risk factors – ended up with a brain aneurysm. What is known, however, is that Dr. Ludwig, of the Clinical Neuroscience Institute, was there to help provide Sterling with the comfort and care she needed.
Sterling says that once she was admitted to MVH, many of her family members came from within a few hours away to see her. She said Dr. Ludwig was helpful and honest in answering questions she and her family had about surgery and possible risks involved.
The surgery took place two days after Sterling was first admitted to MVH, and she was discharged the next day.
Sterling knew that even after having the surgery, there was a possibility that her symptoms would not go away. That concern became all too real for her when for the first couple days following the surgery she had a severe headache.
Dr. Ludwig prescribed Sterling with an anti-inflammatory to help ease the swelling in her head, which in turn lessened the headache. After a week of recovery, the headache was gone, but the double vision and eye drooping remained for about three months.
But eventually, little-by-little and day-by-day, Sterling's vision improved, the swelling of her eye improved, and her eye stopped drooping. The only lingering symptoms she now has is chronic fatigue, which she manages with a once-daily medication.
In August 2016 Sterling had a follow up appointment during which a small bleed was again found with the aneurysm. She had a second coiling procedure done and had no complications or follow up symptoms.
Sterling will visit Dr. Ludwig again in February for a repeat magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), which is a type of MRI that looks specifically at the body's blood vessels.
Though Sterling says she's learned that brain aneurysms typically run in family, this type of aneurysm is not present in her family medical history. She's also learned that because her aneurysm doesn't seem to be genetic, her daughter is not at an increased risk.
Looking back, Sterling is thankful for the care Dr. Ludwig provided and the time he took to explain things to her and her family.
She is also thankful that she was determined in her mission to find out what was causing all her symptoms.