Vertebral Artery Dissection
Information,
research, and treatment information about vertebral artery
dissections and strokes.
Personal VAD & Stroke Stories - Page 3
These are just some of the personal stories people have sent to me since April 2008. There are many more but problems with email accounts mean I don't have emails previous to that.
Please share your personal story on the site.
The stories are in no particular order and I have purposely not included names or personal information.
VAD, Strokes, Spontaneous During Tennis, M45
I hurt my neck serving a tennis ball. A week later I had a Transient Ischemic Attack at work. I was not feeling well early in the morning.
Severe headache, paralysed left side, fell to the floor – I thought it was a heart attack. It took 45 minutes for an ambulance to get to me.
I was hospitalised (DO NOT MOVE) for 2 weeks. MRI / CAT confirmed a 11 cm split to inside lining of left vertebral artery. The clot over this split must have moved up into my brain.
I was very weak, and could not walk far. It was an achievement to walk my daughter to the school bus stop – about 100 yards away. There I could rest before the return journey.
I had 6 months off work, slowly improving. I had difficulty dealing with more than one thing at a time and was very tired from the slightest activity. One neurologist told me “to snap out of it”. It took 18 months to get back to work full time, but have since been playing golf, and really imagining everything is OK.
I am still very anxious about this event. On Friday, in my first game of ten pin bowling since the event, the very first ball caused a sharp pain to my neck that has me very worried again.
While the medical people are all very supportive, it seems to me they know little about it.
My best wishes to all facing this
VAD, Stroke, Spontaneous, M55
VAD, Stroke, Chiro-Linked, M33
VAD, No Stroke, Spontaneous, F27
I am a 27 year old female in Dallas, Tx. I started having neck pain one morning in November of 2008 when I woke up...it felt like I had seriously slept on it wrong. I thought I would wait a few days because I have had this pain before. I waited 10 days and then thought maybe I should go in because I had developed strep, so maybe the main neck pain was a mass ive infection in the deep tissues of the neck. I went to the ER and they sent me home with Antibiotics and muscle relaxers, only getting an X-ray to see if I had broken anything....such idiots because I had not been in an accident. I finally went to one of those doctors in a box...quick to see, and he sent me to a ENT. I was at my tolerant level and was like...whatever. This ENT was a God send, because he saved my life. He stated that he never runs CT scans but for some reason decided to run one on me. The ENT rushed me to one of the only Dr.'s in Dallas that had any idea what the hell he was doing.
The CT scan revealed that I had a VAD on the right side from my shoulder to the base of my skull. I was in the hospital for a week on the normal treatment..heprin and coumadin. I can not descibe the pain I felt in my neck. In the ER for the first time the Dr.'s gave me Diladid and Morphine. They both ran up the back of my neck and fully pressured my brain....I screamed in pain. So, the nurses and Dr.'s for 10 min looked at me in amazment or amusment...which ever one. So when I returned home with my pain killers and blood thinners....I was in shock. At least the Vascular Surgeon said he had no idea and didnt know what in the hell to expect....so we would become best friends. One week after being home my pain shot up again, so I went to the ER....and guess what? The left side spontaniously dissected and it was joined by a puesdoanuyerism....WTF is all that I thought and the only thing my family could think of was anuyerism and clot. We all freaked out because if I had not been on blood thinners I would be dead and my four children would be motherless, but why did the other side dissect after the heprin treatment. I have repeatedly been in the hospital with pain and I want to know if anyone has the consistent neck pain and what makes it worse for you.....because I need answers to manage this pain. So it is January 1, 2009 and after spending hours in the ER with worrible pain and no pain meds that will work, all they could tell me was that the CT scans look the same as it has looked and my blood was not at its theraputic level because I ate lettuce and cilantro....WHAT! and ....WTF again. What is going on and why am I not showing any improvement after this long. I cant take it easy the rest of my life...not that my staff at home isnt great but still this is the most painful frustrating thing I have ever could have imaged going through. My family and I are at our end with frustration.....I just want some answers!!! You would think that that would not be so hard.
VAD, No Stroke, Spontaneous, M36
VAD, Stroke, Spontaneous, F37
I am a 37 year old mother of 3 that lives in the UK and I had a VAD
(spontaneous) 3 months ago. I had a severe headache with neck
stiffness, vomiting, photophobia etc.. seen by 4 doctors at local
practice over 1 week (they thought it was a migraine and that I was
over reacting!) before I was sent to a local hospital and had all the
tests...CT head scan and lumbar puncture. It confirmed a bleed in the
brain and then I was transferred to a neurology unit/hospital (in the
middle of the night) all very frighteningl! I am also nurse and I found
that having medical knowledge more stressful. After a femeral artery
angiogram it was confirmed as VAD.. the consultant said it was very
rare and very little known about it. I have been making a good, slow
recovery, I was told that I did not have a stroke, but my mother moved
in with me to help with the children. I am hoping to return to work
next week (Jan 09). I still take the occasional painkiller and I am on
Aspirin, I have regular CT angiograms to monitor the dissection.
Overall it was a traumatic experience, especially when the
neurosurgeons and their team do not have all the answers. My own Doctor
had never heard of it and that he was so shocked!.... doesn't that
speak volumes?!!
Bi-Lat VAD, No Stroke, Spontaneous, F42
Like other people whose stories I have read on this website, my VAD
went undiagnosed for days despite several trips to the emergency
department of my local hospital. It started when I began having pain
over my left eye, which I initially attributed to a sinus infection.
After two-three days in which the pain got progressively worse and
I began to experience nausea and vomiting, I went to my PCP who
thought it was a sinus infection and gave me antibiotics plus a shot
of Toradol for the pain and sent me home. The pain did not resolve
and later that same day when I could no longer tolerate the pain,
which now was also in the back of my head and neck, I went to the
local emergency department. They did a CT scan but saw nothing
unusual on it. A migraine was suggested, although I have never had
migraines before, and as someone else on this site said, the pain
was now at least 4 days old. I was discharged with some Vicodan
for the pain and the nausea was attributed to a stomach virus that
my whole family had had the week ealier. That was a Saturday.
After spending the entire weekend in bed popping Vicodan for the
pain and vomiting intermittently, I returned to the emergency
department on Monday morning and this time saw a Neurologist who
diagnosed a occipital neuritis and prescribed a nerve block for the
pain. I should point out that during both these emergency visits my
neuro exam was negative: I never had any of the usual warning signs
of an impending stroke, just the unbearable head and neck pain.
After having the nerve block I went home and went back to bed.
About 3:00 in the morning on December 24, I could no longer take the
pain and I was shaking and vomiting, so I called an ambulance to
take me back to the emergency department for the 3rd time. This
time I was finally admitted although they still didn't know why I
had this pain. Finally I saw the neurologist again and after going
over my symptoms yet again, it was like in a cartoon where you see
the light bulb go on in someones head, he! turned around walking
really quickly to the door of my room saying "You need an MRI now".
As soon as they finished the MRI a CT scan with contrast was
ordered and just as they were wheeling me back into my room from the
CT scan the neurologist and nurse were there saying they were taking
me to ICU right away. I spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the
next day in ICU on a heparin drip with a neuro check being done on
me every hour. I was discharged on the 4th day on Lovenox
injections and Coumadin daily. We live in a suburb of Boston about
an hour south of the city, all along my sisters had wanted me to be
transferred into a Boston teaching hospital but I stayed in the
local hospital as it was close to home. However, two days after
discharge from the local hospital, my headaches returned again and
this time, knowing what was wrong and getting very frightened, I
went to Mass. General Hospital in Boston. They had extensive
experience with dissections of all sorts and they admitted me to the
neuro unit for 2 nights. They did 2 more CT scans and discovered
than I had another dissection on my right side (the first hospital
had only identified the one on the left). The doctors at MGH
compared their film with the one from the first hospital and the
right sided dissection, which was actually larger than the one on my
left, was not visible a few days earlier. The treatment was the
same as the first hospital, Coumadin and no stressing of the
arteries.
We never discovered what caused the dissections, although it is
acknowledged that strenuous vomiting from the stomach virus I
suffered the week before the dissection may have contributed.
It wasn't until I was home from the hospital and feeling better than
I started to research VAD in depth and realize just how lucky I was
to not have had a stroke during the time I went undiagnosed, I know
now that many are not as lucky. It was frightening to discover that
up to 10% of people don't survive the initial dissection due to
brain hemmorrage.
I am concerned that the doctors at my local hospital did not
identify the condition earlier, although as I said I did not present
with any typical neurologic symptoms other than the severe head
pain. The doctors and nurses there were rather excited about my
condition when it was finally diagnosed as apparently they had never
had a case of it there before. If I had gone to the teaching
hospital to begin with, maybe this would have been diagnosed sooner
as they were very familiar with the condition.
From now on, if anyone I know has a really unusually severe headache
I am going to insist they get checked out because you just don't
know.
VAD, Stroke, Chiro-Linked, M42
VAD, Stroke, Neck "Cracking", M36
Im 36 years old and i had a stroke in
january 2008. I was popping my neck regularly when one night when
i did it I saw stars and said I wasnt going to do it again. two
weeks
later after suffering from headaches ever since that night
I had a stroke. they told me it was caused from popping my neck.
i dissected the vertebral artery and that was where the headaches
came from. it took two weeks for the clot to form. i was in the
hospital and then rehab until march 5 2008. I am suffering from
alot of numbness on my left side and i lost my top peripheral vision
from
the brain damage. the brain damage affected the processing part of
my
brain. any time i overstimulate my brain
the left side goes numb and it is very difficult to walk or do
anything
at all. my doctors have tried several medicines to try and help with
the
numbness but none do the job. they have told me to exercise, as soon
as i
start my left side goes numb. when im in the car the same thing.
numbness
from head to toe.my doctors said the exercises woould help but it is
too
hard for me to do when i know i will be numb as soon as i start.
Read other Personal Stories of VAD's and share your personal story on the site.
Share your personal story of VAD and/or stroke caused by a VAD.
Chiropractic Adjustments Causing Vertebral Artery Dissections?
"Is it true that getting your neck adjusted by a chiropractor can actually cause a stroke?" - "Absolutely"
Sandy Nette's Story
Sandy's goal is for chiropractors to stop neck manipulations.
Britt Harwe's Story
One of Britt's goals is that chiropractors be required to offer an informed consent form.