Stroke Community

amazing i just got out of the hospital 2 days ago from a mild stroke after going to my chiropractors office he did the same to me and i am going to sue him the first day i could not get out of bed without getting dizzy but today i am better i just feel like there is pressure in my head. a stroke i s something i never want to go through again. the doctors give me nothing for the stroke i just take other meds because of high blood sugar.

what exactly happened at the chiropractor's? if you don't mind me asking. My situation was ...when he manipulated my neck he dissected my left vetebral artery. It sounded like a bomb went off in my head. I immediately lost feeling of my left arm, had double vision, terrible headache, and vomiting uncontrolablely. How long were you in the hospital, I was in for 6 days, are you on any meds now? I apologize if I am asking too many questions, but I am curious as to why I am on at least 25 pills a day for this and you are on none. Are you taking any blood thinners? Do you have to get your blood checked every 2 weeks? Do you have any follow up appointments? Please if you don't feel comfortable sharing that is ok, like I said I am just very curious about this whole situation. I am only 34 years old....too young to be on a Stroke support group message board. I am looking for answers, that I am not sure are there. Do you have any other effects, or do you not know of them yet? It seems like every few weeks or so I find different things I now can't do, or have to extremely careful doing because of balance, dizziness, and nauseous. I couldn't even play the Wii Sports games any more with out almost passing out from watching the TV.

I had my stroke when I was 33, apparently most people who go through this experience are elderly but not all of them, we are examples of that, about the lose of balance you can do crunches to strengthen your core, that helps me some. Best of luck.

I take 2 meds. after the stroke which I will have to take for life, Lipitor (cholesterol) and Plavix (blood thinner) if you are not taking something to avoid another stroke, I think you should, talk to a neurologist and try to stay calm, things will get better, just be patient and smile you are alive!

Same thing he did to you. it toke 2 days for it to happen i thought it was vertigo.I was in the hospital for 12 days.i take 2 pills twice a day.No blood thinners,i go to the doctor every 2 to 3 weeks,i get aliitle dizzy every now and then i hope this goes away real soon. I cannot do things to long or i will feel sick anyone have any info tha will help?

Hi Jonsey, I was 43 when I had a major rear brain Ischemic stroke. I lost all function and speech on right side. One of the biggest hindrances to my relearning to walk is my lose of a sense of balance. In two years it has come back a little, but I generally get warnings when it's too late to do anything, and I fall over. What you, feeling is normal. While it gets better with time, it may or may not come back fully. Partly cause of meds your on partly because you stroke may have done damage and your brain has to rewire itself. The rewiring is almost never a hundred percent. As for blacking out, that is usually lack of blood to brain, which flows better when your prone hence, why you wake up. Have you spoken to your doctor about it? One last thing, you may start to experience waves of vertigo. They can come on you sudden, the best thing is just stop and stand the till feeling passes it usually only lasts for a few seconds. I had it explained to me it is confusion, trying to sort out visual cues, blood pressure changes, inner ear changes, balance changes, though you doctor or physical therapist can probably explain it better or in more detail. Let me know how your recovery goes, my email is: James_Ellington@bellsouth.net Take Care, Jim

Hi there. I had a stroke Sept of 08'. I am 26 years old and suffered a bi-lateral arterial dissection in my neck. I had to re-learn how to walk, hold a cup, drive...everything. I have recovered very quickly and was extremely lucky to be able to work full time again so soon. Currently my biggest issue has been my loss of balance. I also can not work out as much or lift anything heavy until the arteries heal in my neck. I am currently on a daily dose of the blood thinner Coumadin. After the stroke I had headaches and neck pain for about 2 months after, in my 3rd month I noticed the neck pain had all but gone unless my INR was too low that week. As for the cause- the doctors are uncertain. I have been told most arterial dissections causing strokes are caused by chiropractic manipulation or some sort of trauma or accident to the neck. In my case I had fairly bad neck pain for several weeks prior to the stroke and when it occurred i was just walking straight ahead and collapsed. I am now almost 4 months out and know what your going through-its an odd thing to deal with so young

Thanks for posting... it is good to know that what I am feeling is normal...because I definitely don't feel normal. I have had the vertigo too. It is exactly how you described it. I do just stand still and wait. I usually try to sit because it is usually followed by blacking out. EVERY night when I lay my head on the pillow, my whole bedroom just spins. I HATE IT. Sometimes I can't even fall asleep because it is so bad, and when I close my eyes, it only gets worse. I thought those college days of going to bed with one leg on the floor because the room was spinning were long gone!!! How are you doing? Was your stroke a result of a chiropractor? I will keep you posted, you do the same, especially if you find any articles, info. or other advice. They never assigned me for physical therapy.... I was a little shocked by that.

WOW... I did not realize this was so common. It seemed like I was a FREAK at the hospital and to every doctor I go to, they just can't believe it and have not seen anyone before that this has happened to. This has been the most terrible thing that has ever happened to me and my family. I just can't believe it all stems from a visit to the chiropractor. How one visit can change your life forever. That is interesting what you said about your INR levels, have you noticed anything if it is too high? My problem is too that they can not seem to regulate my levels. They finally just switched me to the coumadin instead of the generic, warafin. So hopefully that helps. Do you have headaches or experience the vertigo or blackout at all. Everyone is concerned with me driving, I told them that they never told me I couldn't, but common sense, if I don't feel good, I don't drive. Are you able to drive? What have they suggested to you to do for helping with your balance? Any suggestions..... this whole process really stinks!!!

Hi Jonesy,

First, no my stroke was not from a chiropractor, no one has ever said why, but I think it had to do with laying in hospital ER, virtually unattended for over eight hours. By that time the clot that was only partially blocking blood flow to my rear brain (which ties the two hemispheres of the brain together, why I had stuff on both sides affected.), moved and completely blocked the flow. The fact I had no insurance meant not only was no neurologist called, but the spent majority of time trying to "foist me off" on another hospital. But that's neither here nor there, I confident God saw what happened, and He'll take retribution.

Second, I am shocked and appalled by the fact no physical therapy (PT), as well as Occupational (OT), or speech therapy (ST) was scheduled. That is very unusual, when I was finally placed, PT began as soon as I was out of ICU, and has continued though to this day. Talk to your doctor it might have been an oversight. If you can choose I have had the greatest gains using the Bobath's teachings style of physical therapy. It is not the most commonly used, so you may have to take it as an outpatient.

Lastly, the bed spinning should decrease over time, mine did. More than a couple of times I felt like riding the porcelain bus. The only thing is I've always hated to throw up. I'd rather feel sick, it's worse now because I could drown.

I read some of the other post, and you're not a freak. There are stroke patients 25 and even younger. That's why people are her to help and be helped. If you want to contact me directly my email is:James_Ellington@bellsouth.net Hope you're feeling as well as can be expected, Jim

im 16 years old and i had a stroke last september. I had alot of trouble with my balance but after about 8 months of rehab/therapy im almost back to normal. I dont know if its because im so young but im sure alot of the excersises are similar that they have you do. Im currently taking plavix, niacin, folbic and i was on lipitor. The only thing that the doctors could find wrong with me was that my lipid protien level A was about 3x's too high. I would love to hear back thnx

OMGosh, it is amazing how many of you have this. I am 45 years old, I woke up at 3am on the morning of Feb. Friday the 13th, I was throwing up and everything was spinning I couldn't even get out of bed to go to the bathroom. Finally on Sunday my husband took me to the hopsital where they looked in my ears and throat and did blood work. Found nothing! Just said it's the inner ear. Went home for to bed for another 3 or 4 days not getting any better so my husband took me to our family doctor. He did the same thing, checked in my ears ect. He said he couldn't see anything but I physically couldn't stand up without falling over. He called the Hearing and Balance center where I went and had test ran. She said that I had something really strong hit my system and knocked out my entire left sides balance but still had my hearing. I can't remember what she called it but she sent me home and said come back in 3 weeks for some balance help. She said stay as active as you can the more the better. Well her it is March 14th and I'm no better then 2 weeks ago. She didn't think it was a stroke because I still can move things and the tests she did didn't seem to point in that direction. OK, now what! I can't drive, I can't run, I can't lift and move things because I lose my balance. I"M SO MAD!! (sorry I can't spell, it runs in the family) . Help dizzysuzie

have they given you any meds to help this? do you have a headache too? how about your vision? I still have double vision, am now going for PT for my dizziness, and OT for my vision. I am so excited to go next week to a headache specialist. I am hoping he will point me in the right direction. sorry for all the questions, but just curious as to what happened to you and why are are feeling that way. Did you go to the chiropractor's that day? WEre you in a car accident, or move really fast? Have they mentioned anything about a calcium depost in your ear, or give you vertigo displaction therepy? I did this, but it didn't work fo rme. So at least it was something they could rule out. Best of luck to you, hang in there.....everyone tells me this, so I guess I should pass on the same advice, even though it is very difficult. I just want my life back!!!!!

well i have a differant question on strokes, im 38 and had a cat scan that showed a problem in my quadrigeminal plate cistern(qp cistern for short) and that it had something to do with a blood vessal being bigger then its supose to be,so then i had a mri and mra and that showed i had a small stroke. all im told is to take baby aspiren-which i do, and that im going to get my cholesterol checked. but thats it, no when,no what to look for,no what damage it has done,no nothing! i do get dizzy,clumsy,slurred speech at times,i stutter at times,i get the dropsies-this one is real irritating,im off balance,if i were to have a soberiety test done id flunk it,well except the breathiliser.i just want answers not a its not a big deal,dont worry about it type of thing.it does run in the familly,and i told him that too.as for the folks that had a stroke after the chiropractor id say lawsuit.and by the way did you know that you can get a stroke at the place you get your hair cut? seen it on the doctors show, it can happen when your getting your hair washed-which i know feels soooo good,but it can happen when your head is back in the sink and your neck is resting on that rounded hard sink part, they say having them roll a towel up under your neck helps with this. something about kinking the arteries in your neck and the one that runs down the back of your neck.anyway if someone has any answers or were i can get some answers please let me know.thank you