neck injury and stroke like symptoms

[eb2003]

Hello,
About three weeks ago I was using an ab machine at home, this machine involves bending backward and forward and extreme extension of the neck. Shortly after using the machine, I twisted my head to the right and felt a severe wrenching sensation at the top of my neck/base of my skull.  Within hours I had swelling and it was extremely painful to move my head up or down or left and right.  The neck pain subsided over about ten days but now I am suffering from some other sensations which I still feel are directly related to the neck injury as I have not felt normal since it occurred- I have numbness in my left hand as well as some weakness of the arm, occaisionally I have numbness in my left foot, my lip has also gone numb on occaision, and the most prominent feature is that my vision is spotty with the sensation that I have just hyperventilated (i.e. lack of oxygen sensation).  I have been to the ER twice and have seen a spinal orthopedic.  At my last visit to the ER they ran an MRI brain scan with contrast imaging; the MRI and the bloodwork all came up normal.  I don't feel normal- I feel like someone has placed a tourniquet on the oxygen supply to the left side of my body.  It comes and goes throughout the day, but more often than not, either my left hand is numb or my vision is spotty and distorted or both- oddly enough, I have noticed that caffeine appears to make the symptoms dramatically worse.  What have I done and how can I resolve this ASAP?

[aj7879]

im worried about my back and neck i have alot of pain all the time some more worts than other ....i had a MRI of my lumbart spin and of theupper part of my back and nothing is showing up ..i was in a accadent when i was 19 years and had gotten sauver whiplash and today i feel really bad i huet in the ball of my neck and head aera my lips are a lil numb and tingles all over my body noone can find whats going on with me ..i have been to neurology for my back i dnot know if it show everything worng with me or not but i relly need answers please suggest anything you might know is there more testing i need to ask for or what ?

[midasrex]

This is pretty interesting. The important thing is to make sure your MRI was the right sequences. As well as a routine brain scan involving T1, T2 and FLAIR sequences you need to have imaging of your vertebral arteries with an MRA neck vessels. It's just like a regular MRI (so you may have had it) but looks at the vessels in detail. The symptoms you describe could well be due to a vertebral artery dissection, it's unusual but certainly well described in people turning their neck with some force, swimmers and the like. If your MRI brain, cervical spine and MRA are normal then you can relax and be reassured that you have strained something, sprained something or whatever you want to call it but something that can be left and observed in the likelihood of it getting better. But your MRI needs to rule out vertebral artery dissection, some (unlikely) form of small brain stroke, or even an acute disc problem in the neck impinging on your spinal cord.

Dunno about the relationship with caffeine...

Anyone else?