It's quite a mouthful, not that I know of many medical terms that are easy to say. As in normal in the medical world, I'd never heard of this until January of 2016 when I was diagnosed with it. At first the medical professionals thought I was dealing with a nasty case of vertigo but my best friend and husband called it a stroke the moment he tried to get me to move from my bed and I couldn't even lift a finger without intense pain.
Bilateral Vertebral Artery Dissection
There are a number of theories as to why this happened but no conclusive evidence as to the why this would happen to someone my age with no physical violent trauma. (car crash etc.)
The Beginning
I'd been struggling since the day after Christmas with a really sore and tender neck after being violently ill in the car.(For me this was my trauma but according to the medical community this was not traumatic enough to cause the stroke.) Violently as in I've never been that sick in my life. My poor husband had to pull the car to the side of the road on a busy section of 405 in Seattle where there was no place to pull over since I couldn't stop throwing up. I now understand what the verse in Romans 8:26 says about the Spirit knowing what we need and interceding on our behalf. I was so sick I couldn't even bring myself to do anything but cry out to God for help. We ended up stopping at my Mom's house in Federal Way so I could be ill without moving instead of making the 3 hour drive home. I was so grateful she was home. I spent the night and the next day my oldest who had stayed with me, while the rest of my crew went home, took the train home. What a sweet time we shared on the ride home. It was a blessing as he was only home for winter break and I love spending time with him one on one. We had a great time and what a fun and comfortable way to travel.
I spent the next two weeks trying to heal my neck. I assumed that I had pulled a muscle or something as my neck and the back of my head hurt so badly. I was stiff but tried to have a good attitude about it and laugh it off. Why focus on being ill if you have the choice to live content and happy? I tried a number of modalities and doctors to try and figure out why I still hurt after a week and a half yet nothing helped long term. The week of my stroke I'd just resigned to myself that I was going to hurt for a while and I just needed to grin and bear it. I had no idea....
Vertigo? Strokes? What!
I've always, unless on vacation, hated getting up in the mornings. In my mind 9 was a perfectly acceptable time to enter the land of the living. :-) But with 5 kids that's not really a reality, especially when they are home educated and have classes to get to online at 8. So at 7am my alarm on my phone when off and I struggled to roll over and turn it off, not an entirely unusual response on my part but something was off and I just brushed it off until I tried to get up. I'm going to assume my body was on auto pilot because I sat up opened my eyes only to discover I was on the tea cup ride from hell and I promptly fell back on my bed into a fetal position as I felt like my head was going to fall off or blow up. My world was spinning out of control and the pain I felt in my head was so beyond description intense. After falling over my strength left me and I was stuck, unmovable. I cried out for help to God again, not panicking but filled with peace, He had this but I needed to do my part too.
Thankfully, I heard my daughter playing in her room so I called out to her. Little miss bubbly came bouncing in and I asked her to get her brother. I'm so thankful she never even knew what was going on and that I was able to speak clearly. Apparently after that point I wasn't clear in my speech or very lucid. My son told me that I moved location on the bed and that I let him know I needed his dad right away and that I thought I needed the hospital. I only remember bits and pieces of that time. I remember my husband coming home and trying to get me up thinking it was a sugar or vitamin issue but I couldn't move so he called 911 where he told them he thought it was a stroke. I remember the paramedics arriving. They put in my IV and gave me anti-nausea meds but I still couldn't open my eyes. I guess I shared my gibberish with them too...my hubby loves to share that part of the story as apparently I was pretty funny and was answering questions in a way that even the paramedics noticed something was very wrong. I remember sobbing as they moved me and carried me down the stairs because the pain was so intense and I couldn't hold up my head. I remember being in the ambulance but not much after that. It's just snap shots that I remember and even after 2 weeks those memories are getting blurry.
Most of the rest of my story was relayed to me by my Husband. We were in the ER for 11 hours. That time was spend discovering what was wrong. By the grace of God I already had a neurologist that the ER doctor worked with and it was her insight that led to the discovery of my double stroke. How you ask? Part of my problem is that at 38 I have braces...I know...anyway braces blocked out the back of my head on the MRI. My Neurologist told them to do the MRI without contrast and tada my bilateral vertebral artery dissection! Apparently you’re really not supposed to survive this, it's kinda a big deal. One of my arteries collapse and the other dissected. As soon as a room was available I was moved to the IMCU (Intermediate Care Unit) Stroke.
The next 4 days’ time stood still and it felt like a day to me.
I vaguely remember people visiting and praying with me..I vividly remember complete peace...and the words always on my mind were 'to live is Christ to die is gain'
*Before I pause until my next post I want to praise the IMCU staff at the hospital what an amazing unit! The staff and nurses of the unit were so kind and attentive to my and my families needs. And they took care of my Mom who was staying the nights with me so my hubby could go home and take care of the kids. We never felt like a burden or just another room and we can't thank them enough for that.
