While doing a Spin bike workout last week I felt a slight throbbing in the right side of my head. It passed after 30 seconds or so and I didn’t give it another thought. (Although at the time I thought “That’s not right”.) The next day I experienced stroke like symptoms and ended up in the hospital ICU. It turns out I had a slight subarachnoid bleed. As a result of all the testing it was also discovered that my right mid cranial artery was 70% occluded. The docs couldn’t establish a connection between the two. An angioplasty was determined to be the best course of action. During that procedure it was discovered that the artery was dissected and a stent was placed. The neurosurgeon says that I shaved five minutes off of his life. It turns out that I was lucky. Left un-diagnosed and untreated this was a time bomb waiting to go off. The docs are perplexed by the stenosis as there are no signs of it in any other arteries in the brain. Any other Dopers had his procedure done? What was your long term outcome?
Probably pretty good if they post an answer.
Nothing to say except you lucked out big time. Most brain bleeds…well, that’s that.
Medical personnel are taught that anyone saying “I’m having the worst headache in my life” is possibly having a SAH (subarachnoid hemorrhage). They are not taught that someone having a mild 30 second headache is getting ready to die three different ways.
I am glad to hear you are doing so very well after such a scare. You are a lucky man.
Back in 2014 I was in a car accident. An hour or two afterwards I noticed a whooshing noise (aka pulsatile tinnitus) in my right ear that I hadn’t had before. It would come and go.
After a few weeks I decided to get that checked out. A CAT scan was done and it was discovered that both my internal carotid arteries had dissected. The right one was almost certainly a result of the accident. It’s impossible to know for sure when or how the left one happened since there were no symptoms at all. It’s possible that I have a rare condition called fibromuscular dysplasia, but the only way to know for sure would be invasive testing that’s really not a good idea in my situation.
After about 6 months or so, the whooshing sound went away. That’s the only symptom I had.
I know I’m lucky. And bodies are weird – these kinds of things have a whole range of effects, from ‘not much of a difference’ to ‘death’.
I do know of some fibromuscular dysplasia sufferers whose dissections were severe enough to warrant stents (and in one case I know, multiple ones), and they’re all doing fine.
You are extremely fotunate. My first job in nursing was a neurosurgery unit, in a busy teaching hospital and regional referral center. I saw some ugly things including a cocaine induced frontal brain bleed that left the person with the mental capacity, impulse control, and general temperament of a spoiled 2 year old.
Don’t mess around with servers sudden onset headaches.
You’re right, of course. Its the ones that don’t post that worry me.:eek: But I was really asking about any longer term impacts or limitations. The doctors re saying, pretty much, “We fixed you. Go back to what you were doing before” including flying my glider. Even after the procedure I was getting short lived symptoms that mimicked the initial episode. As they sorted out the meds these got less frequent and they sent me home after 36 hours with stable BP and no symptoms. I have to admit that every little tingle on the left side of my face or arm raises my pulse a bit.
I was lucky and I know it. While not as dramatic as the experiences some others, its given me a new appreciation of life, in general. Not to mention getting my legal paperwork in order.
You don’t say how old you are, but if you are otherwise healthy, remember that bodies have a remarkable capacity to heal and adjust to changes, especially when you are younger.
I’ve been told that I shouldn’t lift anything heavy (‘heavy’ in my instance is defined as more than 35 lbs.) and to not do anything that could torque my neck (bungee jumping, rollercoasters and skydiving are out, which for me is fine since I wasn’t planning on doing any of those things anyway). If you are unsure about any activities, ask about them, and it’s perfectly fine to get 2nd and 3rd opinions if you are uncomfortable about initial answers.
FWIW, I’m 60. I love roller coasters but haven’t been on one in 15+ years. So, if they are out, so be it. I do lift but its relatively low weights and higher reps on machines. When the weather is good I do like to bike at a good clip for 18 miles or so. Its a regular loop that fits my schedule. They said the main risk there is bleeding if I crash. I’ll have to thing about that one as I like to do cardio and I hate to swim. Maybe I’ll get back to running. Thanks for all the replies.
do you maintain a flight medical?
I don’t know how similar this is but in 2013 I had a subdural hematoma from a fall. I recovered after an operation but have since had problems with hearing music playing when there isn’t any. It led to some mildly amusing frustration and I actually wrote Oliver Sacks about it. I’m on a medication that controls it now and haven’t had any other problems.
And here I was going to post about a cat bite (MIL’s cat) that got me into hospital for a couple of days while they filled me with IV antibiotics. That’s pretty boring compared to yours.
I’m glad to hear you’re doing well. Keep it up, and watch out for both sudden headaches and psycho cats.
As a glider pilot, a medical isn’t required. You self-certify that you you have no known condition that would make you unsafe to fly. While you don’t sign anything before each flight it is understood that this self-certification is done on a flight-by-flight basis. Since my neurosurgeon is probably better equipped to evaluate my risk I’ll go with his opinion. Unless, of course, I feel particularly shitty for whatever reason, on any given day. Then I 'll stay on the ground. Just like before. If the doc said “Give it up.” I would, albeit reluctantly. I have no desire to crash and kill myself or anyone else.
Psycho cats? Are there any other kind? If it weren’t for my wife’s allergies, one would be walking on my keyboard right now.