Stroke caused from Cartoid Artery Dissection

[poole73]

I am the caregiver for my husband, Specialist David Poole.  He is Active duty Army for 7 years, 3 years Reserves and the last 4 years as Georgia Army National Guard.   He was injured at his Unit back on October 4, 2009, when he was helping get a 250 tarp into the back of a deuce and a half and the man on top let it slip and it gouged into Spc Poole’s neck and shoulder.  He is a Medic & was asked if he needed to go to the hospital, he thought he was ok.   It was sore but he thought nothing of it.   For the next 3 weeks he had severe headaches (which he had a long history of migraines, so he thought it was normal).  So on 10-30-09, he came home from work and started having this major migraine and starburst behind his eye.  He just went and laid down and since he is a medic, he just though migraine and told me to leave him alone and leave him in our bedroom in the dark.   A week later, we were at my Mom's and we were on the back porch and he had a stroke right in front of us.   He could not talk and his face dropped on the left side.   We called the ambulance and when the ER doc did a CT of his head they saw he had 2 stroke areas on his brain, so the first stroke was on 10-30, we just did not know it was a stroke b/c it hit the visual cortex of his brain.  The 2nd one hit his frontal lobe area and hit his language area of his brain.  The injury to his neck, caused a carotid artery dissection and it threw blood clots which caused the 2 strokes.   So be careful if you ever hurt your neck.  Carotid artery dissection is actually very common in young people.   So now he still has some right side weakness and Aphasia.  He cannot feel hot or cold on his right side.   He has had some major depression issues.   He once left the house with the gun case and later returned after frantic phone call from me.  Michael has gone through such an array of emotion which I am sure you understand.  He is very educated, he was in the process of going to Physician Assistant school at Fort Sam Houston.   And now people look at him like he is slow or uneducated which is farther from the truth.  He has gone through feeling of worthlessness and now with having to give up his military career he feels like he has nothing.   So we are working through the tough times.  

We have to continue to wrestle the system.   We are now over 1 year and 6 months since the injury to his neck at his military Unit.  We have an approved Line of Duty (LOD).  Now we are waiting on the Army Physical Disability Evaluation Process (MEB/PEB Process)   He had lost his civilian job as a nurse (b/c he now cannot read or write.)  

He has struggled with depression and anger problems.  Because of frontal lobe damage he has a hard time processing and short term memory.  He is on Depakote and Cymbalta for psych issues.   Anyone else who has gone through this with any suggestions on what we should do next.

[50Army52]

Going thru the same experience you had.  Fellow soldier.  Lifted object and felt something snap in cervical column.  Within days, started having immense cartoid artery pain.  MRI, CAT scans ok however, Feb 3, 2012 MRA reflects 80% cartoid artery blockage in proximal right cavernous internal cartoid artery.  Physicians say I'm fine but after reading your story and looking at my MRA results, I'd say I'm several steps behind your story.  I feel so bad for you mate.  Your lucky to have a loving caring wife by your side.  After doing more research it appears this thing is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off and give someone a stroke.  Makes you think twice about picking up anything heavy, ever again.  I feel like someone punched me with a two X four under the right side of my chin.  
Best wishes from Seattle, Good luck on getting VA to accept claim.  Absolutely critical that your Command initiate Line of Duty Determination even at this late date.  With LOD they WILL give you a disability rating.  Make sure to get names of all witnesses and supplemental log entry on your units attendance document which used to be a DA Form 1379 12 years ago when I was in the reserves from 1967-2000.  Many units are lazy about initiating an LOD. 50Army52  
    

[sara12345]

I do so ache for you and your husband and I have little to offer in the last paragraph in this comment.  But I do offer your husband my heartfelt concern for him.   I too had a carotid artery dissection at age 54 three years ago.  While my disabilities aren't as bad as your husband's, I too have gone through severe depressions feeling like my life was not worthwhile.  I had paralysis on my right side and aphasia at the time of my stroke which is mostly better, but I still have deficits with both as well as some memory problems.  

By far the worst has been 24/7 migraines since my stroke.  They are often severe inspite of nerve block injections and Botox injections repeatedly.  I can't do much physically at all and need 11-13 hours of sleep every night or the migraines get worse.  I go to the ER at least once a month. So I'm quite disabled.  

I guess the only thing that helps me is to focus on what I can still do and recognize that stroke disabilities do keep getting better over the years.   Yes, even years after the stroke you will continue to get small steps for the better.  There's a book called, My Stroke of Insight, which you could probably find a used copy on Amazon.com.  It's the story of a woman who was terribly affected by her stroke which she continued to make progress for years after it occurred.  The book was a bit too touchy-feely for me, but I did like hearing about her continued progress.

My best to you both.