Prior to March 2020, I was an extremely active person. I worked 2 bartending jobs as well as 2 days a week coaching at a local gym. I loved CrossFit, running, swimming and anything involving lifting weights and/or pushing my physical limits. When Covid hit the US, I lost my bar jobs and continued to work coaching workouts via Zoom. With so much extra time on my hands, I set up my sewing machine and began making masks during the shortage. I was also programming outdoor workouts for anyone to join in socially distanced sweat-sessions. One morning, late in April, I awoke to discover that my neck had locked up and I was in excruciating pain, unable to move anything from the shoulders up. Over the next 2 weeks, I experienced vision problems, fatigue, dizziness, vertigo, nausea, migraines, weakness and numbness in my limbs and pain which never ended. It took me weeks to seek medical intervention, partly due to my ignorance in thinking that a person with my level of fitness and age(34 at the time) could ever be the victim of something as serious as a stroke, and partly due to my stubborn nature.
I finally went to the ER on May 12th, 2020. Between the questions, blood-draws, 2 CT/CTA scans, 4 MRI/MRAs and a medical-flight to a stroke specialty hospital in San Francisco, I was told I had something called “dissection”. I had no idea what it meant or how serious it was until the ER physicians told me that I was on the “fast-track” to getting on a flight to a treatment center. Through the next few days during my hospital stay, I began my education on my diagnosis: Spontaneous Bilateral Vertebral Artery Dissection(VAD) with Multiple Cerebellar Strokes. VAD are tears to the inner lining of the artery walls that pump blood from the heart to the brain. I was in the intensive care unit of California Pacific Medical Center for 3 days. I saw 2 Neurologists, a general physician, an occupational therapist, physical therapist, a speech therapist and countless nurses, all of whom were as shocked as I was to have such a young, healthy-looking person in the ICU. I was taken off my hormone birth control immediately and put on Eliquis to help dissipate any remaining blood clots and to hopefully stop any more strokes from occurring.
Leaving the hospital came with many obstacles, one of which was my new list of “NO’S”. NO lifting anything over 10lbs, NO alcohol, NO popping my neck, NO rubbing my neck, NO hormone birth control, NO getting my heartrate up, NO work, NO riding in a car down a bumpy road, horseback riding, roller coasters, river rafting, etc. While there were so many things that I could not do, there were only a few things that I could do to aid in my own healing: Drink plenty of water, avoid foods that cause inflammation, take my anti-coagulant medication and rest.
I am a rare one. Very few people will ever experience a VAD. Even less with experience 2. Even fewer still will have them happen spontaneously and with no catalyst. And only something like 1 out of 40 who experience a VAD will also have one or more strokes. Still, I consider myself lucky. I am inspired and amazed everyday by my fellow survivors of not just VAD, but also Carotid Artery Dissection, aneurysm, ischemic or hemorrhagic strokes, TIAs and any and all brain injury. Oftentimes these injuries can be invisible and extremely frustrating to share with others.
