My strokes were caused by a vertebral dissection, where a tear to tissues in an artery in my neck resulted in a clot. About 4 small pieces of the clot broke off and travelled to my brain, causing ‘strokes’. I was incredibly lucky , firstly, because these mainly impacted my cerebellum and, secondly, because my recovery is proving to be very speedy indeed when compared with others.
Strokes in someone my age are rare; vertebral dissections are often the way they happen at this age, but are also comparatively rare: in total, they account for less than 2% of strokes.
shows a carteroid dissection - the vertebral artery is a smaller one that runs parallel but twists round your spine... I believe..!
More information is available all over the place. I haven’t read it all yet, but if you want to, here are some leads:
Info About Stroke
- Info for patients/family from a stroke unit
- Stroke Association
- NHS definition (nice little info-cartoon)
- Factsheets
- Recovery (quite a lot of this doesn’t apply to me!)
- Aphasia
Vertebral (arterial) Dissection
- Vertebral dissection – what is it
- Vertebral artery dissection – info
- Another article
- And one more…
CADISS Trial
Warfarin
Help/Support After A Stroke:
- Stroke Association – general information
- Different Strokes Facebook Group – this one is a really good one – better than their website
- Young Stroke Survivors Facebook Group – another good one for the under 55s!
- Stroke Support Group (online) – useful
- Different Strokes – org for younger people (but the website is terribly old-fashioned!)
Much Better Blogs Than This One:
- Matthew Padmore: definitely still has his sense of humour
- Julie’s Update: was only 32 when she had a brain haemorrhage
- Dom Pardy was only 28… in hospital for 2 years
- Bailey – is 16… she had a vertebral dissection
- Julia Fox Garrison
- Tara
- Bill Herbst
- Steve Boncher
Things I’m very thankful to have avoided:
Patient.co.uk has a diagram and a list that I liked, because most of the items on the list (bar the swallowing, understanding and emotions) applied to me:
lifted from patient.co.uk
After Stroke Party 
What a terrific site! Thank you for compiling all these resources. A stroke at a young age is difficult in part because it is so rare, and recovery information directed to younger people seems to be scarce. I am thankful that you are helping spread the word that strokes do also occur to young people and most importantly we can, and will, recover.
I wish you the best of luck in your journey to a full recovery. Make sure you take in all the simple pleasures life is offering and enjoy each day. You have a great opportunity to learn more and more about your body through this experience that you are enduring. You are already passing along great things such as hope to others. Thank you so much for the recognition to my blog. I wish you the best in your continued recovery.
Tara
By: findingstrengthtostandagain on November 14, 2010
at 4:30 pm
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By: Let me Go, Please « After Stroke Party on November 29, 2010
at 1:03 pm
[…] those interested in more good news stories, Julie’s Update (her actual blog is listed on the links page) noted the story of Rhiannon Prytherc who recovered fully from a brain bleed to which most of […]
By: INR = 3 (so now it's getting too high, after a stroke) | After Stroke Party on November 11, 2011
at 7:52 am