Distracting Injuries, Don’t ignore the Little Pains

First, get your bindings tested, like actually torque wrench tested. My DINs are usually at 8 but one set of well skied Pivots (lost some blind trust and everything wears out) were releasing like they were set to 5 I popped out of the heal when skiing fast from off to on-piste. Shot like a cannon about 20 feet and landed hard on shoulder I have been in PT for weeks for the shoulder, but the real sinister injury was lurking in my neck. I had been ignoring the consistent headaches and occasional dizziness, aura, and loss of balance. That was a mistake. Wednesday morning, I had a stroke. I had a Vascular Arteral Dissection that resulted in a ischemic stroke that affected my cerebellum. As it stands now, I am lucky and have almost all function back, but it was a miserable 48 hrs. And almost completely life changing, knock on wood I just have to take a daily aspirin and keep it easy until I get another MRI. The lesson for me, don't ignore head or neck pain. Lesson to the ER doc that thought I was just having "fainting" and almost cut me loose after the CAT scan was inconclusive is, error on the side of caution and just order the damn MRI.

Fuck me, that reads like someone who just had a stoke… oh wait, I did. I am too lazy to go fix all that formatting and grammar and I need to get off the screen anyway. Glad I can post again and appreciative that my situation hasn’t been the worst it could be. I hope you all take care of yourselves.

Damn, mang, glad that you're alive!

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Originally Posted by Hood26

First, get your bindings tested, like actually torque wrench tested. My DINs are usually at 8 but one set of well skied Pivots (lost some blind trust and everything wears out) were releasing like they were set to 5 I popped out of the heal when skiing fast from off to on-piste. Shot like a cannon about 20 feet and landed hard on shoulder I have been in PT for weeks for the shoulder, but the real sinister injury was lurking in my neck. I had been ignoring the consistent headaches and occasional dizziness, aura, and loss of balance. That was a mistake. Wednesday morning, I had a stroke. I had a Vascular Arteral Dissection that resulted in a ischemic stroke that affected my cerebellum. As it stands now, I am lucky and have almost all function back, but it was a miserable 48 hrs. And almost completely life changing, knock on wood I just have to take a daily aspirin and keep it easy until I get another MRI. The lesson for me, don't ignore head or neck pain. Lesson to the ER doc that thought I was just having "fainting" and almost cut me loose after the CAT scan was inconclusive is, error on the side of caution and just order the damn MRI.

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Glad you got that figured out in time! Hope your recovery is full and complete.

Holy shit, that’s not the plot twist I was expecting at all. The prospect of Arterial Dissections gives me nightmares. Glad you’re ok

Shit...those scare me. Glad you are healing up.

Holy shit, a stroke?!?
Glad you are pulling through it

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Pleased to hear that you&#39;re okay, Hoody and have a promising prognosis following next MRI!&nbsp;</p>
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Sounds fucking scary.</p>
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Originally Posted by Hood26

I popped out of the heal when skiing fast from off to on-piste. Shot like a cannon about 20 feet and landed hard on shoulder.

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Pretty much what happened to me a month ago at Purgatory closing weekend.</p>
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I was luckyer...busted clavicle requiring surgery. Fun Times!</p>

I'm sporting a sore shoulder right now and the wife's nagging me to go to the Doc.

Hope you have a swift and full recovery!

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Originally Posted by Shredhead

I&#39;m sporting a sore shoulder right now and the wife&#39;s nagging me to go to the Doc. Hope you have a swift and full recovery!

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Go to the doc, hoss.

Viva, sorry to hear you got broke up and hope you are recovering.

Thanks for the vibes guys.

Mods: Help a Stroke Survivor out and change the title of my thread? I changed it for the first post.

Search didn&#39;t yield anything about my specific stroke or injury, and it seems to be one that people have worried about, so I want to give an update(s) with the disclaimer that every stroke is different. I am now 144hrs past the event, so take from my experience what you would like.

VAD https://my.clevelandclinic.org/healt...ery-dissection
The above is the most common cause of stroke for my age group. When a stroke occurs, it most often effects the cerebellum. I remember the difference of cerebellum and cerebral by thinking about getting your &quot;bell&quot; rung which will knock you out and lose your balance.

The signs and symptoms I had been ignoring are all kinds of little events that were never long in duration and easily excused with maybe I am tired or maybe I need to eat something. Momentary vertigo. Feeling like I was being pushed onto my heels. Temporary vision changes like seeing flickering light in my peripheral. Restless leg. Tremors when laying down and asking does it feel like a train or earthquake is shaking the house. Headaches, lots of headaches. These are all the things I wished I had asked the ortho about when I saw him for my shoulder. I also should have mentioned to the PTs.

144 hrs removed. Still a constant headache. Balance and steadiness improving; worse if eyes are closed. Had some numbness and tingling the other day and that was new and freaked me out. Went away after sleep.
Sleep has been crucial.

White noise doesn&#39;t exist. Everything is front and center and the brain is not filtering distractions which has definitely caused irritation, best solved by sleep. I want my refrigerator to literally run away.

I started to get really freaked out about my ability to ski at a high level again, so I watched some YouTube and that was a mistake. The only stroke survivor that wasn&#39;t a gapper, newbie, or Jerry to begin with had a much more severe stoke than I had.

Nystagmis is the canary in the coal mine. The worse all the other signs and symptoms, the worse the eye jitters. Sleep again makes that better. I wonder if pre stroke, if I had had my eyes checked I could have avoided the stroke?
Day of stroke. Got up from breakfast table. Vertigo. Crushing noise in my ears. Just like they show in the movies. Started to lose balance. Steadied myself in a doorway. Called for help. Knew I was going to fall. Down I went. Lots of spastic movements. Told my wife I thought I was having a stroke. Got angry and pushed my boys away when they tried to help. Kept saying I was fine, but sure as hell wasn&#39;t. Got to ERA and must have been in compensative shock because a lot of function returned, but not the eyes the eyes don&#39;t lie, this caused the triage nurse and the doc to both suspect fainting and not be too concerned, leaving me in the waiting room for hours. I am lucky that this type of stroke would have been made worse with the clot busting meds, so time wasn&#39;t as crucial.

BE-FAST my friends.

Every neck pain is not a reason to get an MRI. Nor is neck pain with headaches unless severe. Neck pain after trauma with dizzyness, loss of balance, and visual symptoms--definitely MRI worthy. That said, most vertigo is not due to stroke or any other kind of brain or artery damage.Glad you started getting better so quickly. Speed of recovery correlates with completeness of recovery.

Dude - that is fucking scary. I fucked up my right shoulder (again) in March, which included a bunch of neck pain as well. But I have a plate/screws holding c6-7 together so wasn’t too surprised. I also get occasional vertigo due to Meniere’s Disease so generally write those off too.

Your experience is a major wake up call.

Happy you are healing up.

Glad you’re still kicking Hood!

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Originally Posted by Shredhead

I'm sporting a sore shoulder right now and the wife's nagging me to go to the Doc.
Hope you have a swift and full recovery!

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Took a rare spill on the hill, charging hard, start of April. Was a refrozen day as it was warming. Straight down on shoulder. Had serious pain but thought I was bruised severely - figured it would heel. Toughed it out then saw a specialist about 6 weeks later. Had a partially separated shoulder.. I’m back on track now.