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Interior Carotid Artery Dissection--Who Knows Their Stuff?

I am a 34 year-old active, white female, average height, very healthy weight.  I had an interior carotid dissection over a week ago, they think from a sports trauma (though I didn't do anything where I knowingly hurt myself).  Luckily, I have 100% collateral blood flow, no brain damage, no shifting, etc...best possible outcome.

Interestingly, in addition, I have tested positive for antiphospholipid antibodies (after testing false-positive for syphilis---common, who knew).  More tests reveal that I test positive for anticardiolipin antibodies, negative for lupus.  They have hooked me up w/ a hematologist for follow-up on this (and he is monitoring my Coumadin for the next 3-6 months).  He is running other tests to make sure that I do not have anti-beta 2 glycoprotein 1 instead of anticardiolipin.  Evidently, the test he ran 1st is not a specific test?  For some reason, the anti-beta would be worse?  I don't really understand all of this.  He doesn't seem to think there is a connection between what
happened to me (icad) and the antibodies, but there seems to be some research saying that there might be (several journal articles).  He says my antibody levels (whatever type they are) are low, so they just need to be monitored & if they
ever get high, I might need aspirin therapy to avoid a stroke.

Right now, my biggest frustration is that NO ONE seems to be able to tell me what I can and can't do.  I guess I am some sort of scientific anomaly, given that I survived this w/ no evident complications or neurological deficit.  Plus, they are dealing with someone who is used to lifting 3 days per week & doing cardio 3 days per week.  Can I drive?  Can I bend over?  Can I do laundry?  Go Christmas shopping? Work?  Have sex?  Exercise?  One doctor says I'll never exercise again.  One says, maybe in 6 weeks.  One says maybe in 6 months.  BUT, everyone qualifies everything they say with, "but I'm really not sure."  Can I just walk around a track right now?  Isn't that kind of like walking at the mall?  Can I do whatever I want as long as I keep my heart rate below X?  The official word from my discharge is not to lift anything over 2 lbs. and to pretend like I had abdominal surgery.  Please, I can lift a 30 lb. dumbbell over my head without even thinking about it, & I can do my fair share of sit-ups, so give me
some information that is relevant to me.  So, I contacted a sports medicine orthopedist that I have seen to see if he knows any doctors who work with athletes recovering from this condition or other head/cardiovascular type injuries/stroke.  If you can point me in any sort of relevant direction, or know anyone I should talk to, I would appreciate it.  You know, no one ever thought Lance Armstrong would get on a bike again.  I just got certified as a personal trainer & was in the process of opening up a gym.  This is not just a simple inconvenience to me.  All this indecision makes me wonder if I shouldn't have asked more questions when they said surgery
wasn't an option for me (too dangerous when blood thinners should do the trick).  Do they REALLY know how to treat this condition?  Where is the cutting edge science/medicine with respect to carotid artery dissection taking place?  I just want to find a doctor who wants to try to help me get back in the gym if at all possible.
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I apologize for the typos; Siri messes me up every time.
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I'm a 30 year old who just discovered my fully occluded left carotid arterial dissection on 11/14/15. I'm very active; intense physical training at work and a bodybuilding hobbyist. In the weeks leading up to my discovery, I had many varying symptoms which began with me thinking that I had an inner ear infection. I first noticed short bouts of blurred vision and inability to focus but only for a few seconds. Then my ears began to hurt as if I had an ear or respiratory infection. Then I started to feel distinct discomfort (not so much pain) in the left side of my neck. Then the full headaches began and when fully turning my neck to the right heard the notorious "whooping" sound; of course I had not idea at the time that this was a tell take sign of CAD, but it's what prompted me to think I should start looking into it. Finally, a day after being having the whoosing sound dismissed by an urgent care doc I felt dizzier and more out of my norm than I ever have in my life while defense training at work. I tapped out and am glad I did; that night I went to Johns Hopkins ER where they found my fully occluded CAD via CT scan. My collaterals are pulling for me and I didn't incur a stroke. I'm shaken up though; the doctors are urging me to stop my career in law enforcement as well as in physical training in general. I'm devastated and honestly, I can't do that. I just bridged with Lovenox (spelling?) and am taking 5 mg of Coumadin to main a 2/3 range and I'm shooting to do this for 3 months at which point I'm going for more imaging to check my healing progress. I have some symptoms still, all manageable. I'm back at work, I really only took 3 days off- but I'm on light duty and am not wearing my gun belt or bullet proof vest... Both I'm worried will cause extra stress and potentially slow healing. Does anyone have any advice for me? I'm going stir crazy and oddly haven't been able to get any solid answers from my doctors about when I came even walk on a treadmill. All considerations and comments are greatly appreciated.
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Wow... I am having a very similar situation right now... Increased blurriness in  left eye, worsening headaches, and increasingly lightheaded this past week. I cannot cross my legs or put weight on my lap without starting to feel faint. Saw my neurologist early this week, but she did not have any thoughts as to what is causing these symptoms. She is going to order a follow up CTA to make sure there have not been any changes since my last angiogram in April. I will keep you posted if I learn anything further!
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My story is fairly similar to yours. Rt ICD July 2014. headache prior to the dissection. Had transient loss of vision in my Rt eye followed by transient left sided weekends. Diagnosed with Rt ICD, was on Revaroxaban for 6 mths and now on Aspirin 100 mg. done well for last one year apart from whooshing sound on my left year (doc says due to increase flow in my Lt carotid) as the Rt is completely occulded. Now for the last few weeks bit blurring in vision/ mild headaches, mild dizziness.  Last CTA/MRA did not show any changes.
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An Update: My 90 day CTA shows the Carotid is still 100% occluded. No change here at all, unfortunately. It also showed up the cerebral infarction. They had me do a stress test 3 weeks ago snd it showed a 48% ejection rate so I failed. Now they want to do a catheterization to see what is going on in my heart (which has some indication of an earlier heart attack. Waiting on this until I see my Neurologist to understand the level of risk that they will knock something loose in there and take me out. We shall see...
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My story is fairly similar to yours. 43 yr old M, Rt ICD July 2014. headache prior to the dissection. Had transient loss of vision in my Rt eye followed by transient left sided weekends. Diagnosed with Rt ICD, was on Revaroxaban for 6 mths and now on Aspirin 100 mg. done well for last one year apart from whooshing sound on my left year (doc says due to increase flow in my Lt carotid) as the Rt is completely occulded. Now for the last few weeks bit blurring in vision/ mild headaches, mild dizziness.  Last CTA/MRA did not show any changes. Any further guidance would be appreciTed.
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