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Blocked Carotid

Hey everyone, this is my first post so welcome to me and thanks for any reply or feedback I may get.

My story:
I am 19 years old in reasonable health. Earlier this year I had a rugby accident and was concussed on a Saturday (17th April). I study away from home and by the Tuesday my parents had decided they would rather come and fetch me and take me home, I was home for 3 weeks. During this time I had a few symptoms that we were told were normal for a concussion, my lip was numb on the right hand side and my right hand lost a lot of strength. I had a 1 week holiday during the time I was home and in total I was home for about 3 weeks. After this time I went back to university.

Once back and uni I felt really dumb. I was crying pretty much everyday sometimes for no reason and sometimes while I was busy with work I was struggling with, I just wasn't a happy guy. I visited a Dr and he put me on Cilift (Citalopram Hydobromide) 20mg a day.

Shorty after my father had a heart attack on the 24th of April. I made a decision to drive home that afternoon and spent about 2 hours driving in the dark. I arrived at about 7 30 and by 8 30 had left the hospital. Just before we left I noticed I had lost most of my vision in my left eye. My mom put it down to strain from driving in the dark and we left it. By Thursday I could still not see properly and we visited an ophthalmologist who found no damage to my eye but sent me for an MRI to find out about any damage to my optic nerve. During the MRI the found I had had 2 TIA's and my left internal carotid was totally occluded. The reason for this was the membrane inside the artery had ruptured and blood had been forced between the membrane and outer wall of the blood vessel. I was told that the entire carotid was occluded and the clots where right up in the blood vessels at the bottom of my brain. At the time it was impossible to get hold of anyone to help but our GP was extremely helpful and managed to get my booked in to hospital and checked on me a few times.

In my town there are only 3 neuro-surgeons and no neurologists, and all 3 were on leave for the long weekend. I was in hospital for a week but received very little treatment. By the Monday I saw a neuro surgeon and he told me that the were basically just trying to prevent another TIA or stroke. I was let out that Friday. That was 2 months ago.

Recently we saw our nearosurgeon again and I was put on 100mg of aspirin a day and told not to do anything for another month, after which i should get back into exercise etc. I was told there was a good chance it might open up eventually and if it didn't blood would find the other routes available, apparently I have good cross-over flow from the other side.

I have no doubt in my Dr's at all. Everyone who dealt with me was good and I'm sure that each of them have done for me what the believed was best. Firstly I need to know if any Dr's have seen this before as none of mine had seen a young man being injured this way from a sport and I would like to know what you guys think. Second I would like to know if me being depressed had anything to do with maybe not enough blood flow to my brain or something along those lines. Third after reading a few similar storys it would seem there is risk to my heart should this vein remain blocked, so if anyone could related that to me and whether you think it might be a problem?  

Im sure i had more questions but that will do for now. I appreciated any response i may get and thank you for taking the time to read this
Best Answer
144586 tn?1284666164
You have a serious problem. The issue appears to be damage caused by the initial accident that resulted in a cascade of events. You require a professional evaluation by neurological experts. Being depressed had nothing to do with your issues. From your description it appears you have had a dissecting aneurysm.  Often there is a co-factor, which is a genetic predisposition.  In the United States, such an accident while involved in school sports would result in the University having legal liability for at the least all medical treatment. There is some experimental work done using small intestine sub mucosa to rebuild arteries. but the results have only been in animal studies. In one case a damaged aorta of a dog was completely repaired. Normally this situation results in death. I suggest you do a search and keep abreast of developments in this area. In the meantime any further exposure to risk in the form of Rugby should be eliminated.
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Avatar universal
Hey everyone.

Just a final update on exactly what happened.

Shortly after posting to this site i saw a neurologist and he said I had had a completed stroke followed by a embolism is my left eye. One of the aspects no one seemed to even pick up was the fact that all the damage to my brain, the eye that was giving problems and the dissected artery were all on the same side, therefore the eye could not have been a result of the stroke but rather another event which was then ruled to most likely have been an embolism.

The doctor I saw ran a whole battery of tests ruling out any genetic factors which may have caused the stroke and so we can be sure it was due to the trauma of the rugby accident.

I was immediately put onto warfarin therapy which lasted 6 months. At the moment I am not even sure if the artery has opened up again but I may go for a scan just to see, all the doctors said it was inconsequential because due to the fact that i am alive so long after the injury and what they saw on the MRI I have very good collateral blood flow from the right hand side.

Shortly after the incident i found i had a very short and erratic temper. Currently i am on Cilift as i am also suffering from depression but this could just be the fact that i had a lot going on last year. I am back at university and carrying on with my life!

Regards  
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Avatar universal
I have seen the surgeon a twice since i left hospital and he seems pretty happy with me. Do you think i should travel to the nearest neurologist and ask him to check me out? And if not do you think i could continue with some form of exercise as the Dr recommended? As far as i know there is no genetic predisposition to any clotting syndrome on either side of my family, my dad was a chronic diabetic and recently died due to cardiac arrest brought on by a a phosphate overload due to him being in renal failure but i doubt there was any genetics involved from that side.

Would you like me to copy the conclusion of the report of the MRI? if that would help at all
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