Hi all, I suffered a stroke 6 weeks ago due to Arterial Dissection in my neck vein. I am 40 and was fairly active, working out twice a week prior to the stroke. When I was discharged from hospital the consultant recommended only gentle exercise such as 30mins walking. I have since made a great recovery physically and really want to get back to my exercise workouts of yoga and aerobics, but I am scared of what I should do as my neck may not be fully healed. Has anyone else suffered a stroke from arterial dissection? Have you returned to normal or strenuous exercise?
I wanted to ask the consultant, but I still haven't been given an appointment for my 4-6week follow up appointment and having difficulty getting hold of them. I contacted my gp, but he was very vague and suggested I just contact the consultant with all my queries.
Hi Susie
Sorry to hear of your stroke but great to hear your recovery is going good.
I was 65 when I had my stroke but not in the neck vein - mine was a blood clot on the brain. I also worked out at the gym 3 times a week at the time and did Clubbercise aerobics weekly. You will notice as you hear more of other people's strokes that most of us led fit and healthy lives previously. It is annoying because we have done everything we are told by keeping fit and healthy to avoid strokes etc yet we still had one! But as my stroke consultant said, it is because you are fit and healthy that you survived and therefore your recovery will be much quicker.
Like you, I was anxious to get back to the gym but he told me no gym for 3 months. After this, I should be OK but to build up gradually rather than hit the gym full on straightaway. Walking and yoga are great ways of building up your stamina and flexibility before you take the step of going back to the gym. I am 4 yrs post stroke and had a further mini stroke last Oct. Although I am back at the gym and have been for a couple of years bar lockdown, I can lift weights no problem but I do still struggle with the cardio routine so I know I wouldn't be able to keep up with the Clubbercise class anymore! I love rowing but my feet still get tied up in knots on the cross trainer and I hate the bikes! I'm not a fan of treadmills as I prefer to walk outside in fresh air than at the gym.
I guess the best thing is to keep plodding on trying to get hold of the stoke team before you take the plunge to strenuous working out and if they give you the all clear it's very much a case of slowly, slowly, catchy monkey till you get back in the swing of things. Take care and good luck with the follow up appointment.
Morning, sorry to hear about your stroke. Im
41 amd have had two now the last one 8 weeks ago the same as yours. They are different as I was told I wasn’t lucky to be alive. Iv been told y my physio amd doctor not to resume activities suck as golf and gym as of the neck. I’m having to have another scan to check improvements before any fuether exercise can be done. Maybe worth just holding out on docs just in case. Hope this helps Lee
Ps sorry for the spelling one of my side affects at the moment
Hi susie im carl 56 i had my 1st of 2 strokes in july this year and mine was a vad same as yours i used the gym 5 days a week mainly weight training , and im almost convinced it was that that caused the tear in my neck artery , im completely paranoid about excercise at the minute for fear of making it worse goin for my ct scan on 22 october , how are you now with your tear ,? Did it cause a clot ?
HI Susie, i had similar just this week - arterial dissection in the neck. I asked the consultant about Pilates, as I’ve been doing classes weekly for years, but he said absolutely not for 3 months -I’ve to have another scan at that point, so I guess it depends on how well its healed then? He said anything that involves stretching/extension of the neck is out til the tear heals, as it can cause a fresh tear and another stroke.
Oddly i might be able to go back to swimming/ horse riding before pilates, and I’d assume yoga would be the same? Lots of gentle walking for me too for the next while!
good luck with your recovery
Helen
Hi Susie! I am Max, 38. Had a carotid dissection 5 weeks ago after after weightlifting in the gym, followed by complete MCA occlusion. Very scary times. Had a thrombectomy and am slowly recovering. How did your recovery go and when did you start exercising? Right now I am just walking. Feel like starting light weights despite some limitations, but scared. The other big problem is the frequent dizziness/brain fog. Very difficult to get any more definitive answers from doctors, so looking for other people experiences, which are difficult to find since our cases are very rare.
I’m not a doctor, but I certainly wouldn’t be putting the that kind of pressure on myself, even with light weights, just 5 weeks after an MCA occlusion 
Stick to things like walking/static cycling. Your brain is still very much in recovery, healing and repairing the damage done. And the first 6mths are the most crucial time for that, so you do not want to risk any setbacks or another stroke.
You certainly don’t want to be lifting weights with dizziness and brain fog, that’s an accident just waiting to happen. That will most likely settle down over the coming months (though some don’t); I think mine it was about 8-10 months after my stroke. It was about 18 months after my stroke before I started at the gym and I’m 4yrs post stroke now, plus I’m 63 
So yes, it certainly will be possible to get back to the gym, just don’t push your luck by trying to run before you can walk. You do realise you have just been through a major life threatening trauma don’t you?! Just because you have no visible wounds to show for it doesn’t mean they are not there.
Lorraine
Thank you, Lorraine! I was always so active, that now that I’m not working and staying at home with this aphasia and heavy brain fog, feels pretty depressing. Very happy to hear your brain fog eventually resolved. It is very uncomfortable. Trying to sleep a lot, yet noticed that I can fall asleep during the day and quicker at night, if I did some walking versus if I didn’t. That’s why I was eager to get a little bit more busy. Does anyone have any tricks on how to get the brain fog better? Coffee helps for me, but only to a certain extent, as well as sleep.
From the 3yrs I’ve been on this forum I’ve not read of any magic formula for clearing the fog. Sleep is the best, if you’re so lucky, took me a couple years to get a good night’s sleep. So, from my perspective, the fog cleared long before the sleep rectified itself😒
Everyone’s stroke is different and so is their recovery, but they all take a lot of time, as in years! In slow but steady increments and the best way to keep track is by keeping a diary, because the improvements can be so gradual and subtle that you don’t always notice.
With things like aphasia, speach doesn’t suddenly switch on one day. I went from nothing, just garbled sounds for the first few months. By the end of the first year, I was able to speak simple words and short sentences. 4yrs on, I still have mild aphasia; still have trouble with word finding, stutter and stammer. And although I can formulate exactly what I want to say in my head, it still struggles to retain the structure coming out of my mouth 
I’m just giving you an idea of timeframes here. Like I earlier, everyones recovery is different. And it’s always two steps forwards one step back or “decompensation” as its called, where you can feel you are regressing. Which can certainly happen when you over do things and get extremely fatigued.
Managing that fatigue is a certain amount of trial and error and the rule of thumb is to always save some energy in your day for emergencies An example of that is when going for a walk, only go so that you have enough energy to get home again, make yourself a brew and put your feet up for an hour when you get back.
A gym is busy, noisy along with loud music, such as my gym. If that’s the sort of thing you were considering, I’d give it the 6 months before you dip a toe in. Your brain will likely be severely over stimulated and you run the risk of knocking yourself back for a couple of days.
But I am not a doctor, I’m only an expert in my own recovery, my advise is only based on what I’ve experienced. And I’ve no idea of your deficits other than the aphasia you mentioned. And we are all as different as our strokes. Plus, you are 25yrs younger than me, which is a bonus to your recovery 
Lorraine
Thank you so much! What you described is so relevant. I definitely struggle with the decompensation days, and you’re right, the only thing I can link them to is overdoing stuff the day before. I also hate those sneaky attacks when you feel relatively stable, and the next moment dizinness hits. The first few weeks of aphasia felt like prison – I know what I have to say, clearly see it in front of me, but the tongue does not turn. Doing a lot of speech therapy now and that helps. Can’t handle to much stimulation as well. As for sleep, now its difficult mostly due to PTSD i think. Can’t say I was afraid of anything in particular before, but this experience got me hard. Thank you again for sharing, Lorraine!
I know just how you felt, I cried most of that first night in hospital, it is very scary. But you survived! You live to have a second go at life, it may never be the same as your old life, but it can still be a damn good one…just packed with quality rather than the quantity of old
We were in lockdown when I have mine, so we made just one attempt at speech therapy over the phone before I ditched that. Instead I just read out loud, books, news articles even the shopping list. Which was also hard to begin with because I could read more than a line or two and the smaller the print the harder it was as the words just jumbled together. But I made it out in the end and so will you if you don’t lose faith in yourself.
So, 4yrs on, I’m back to reading books in a couple of nights, I spend a lot of time corresponding on here. I was back driving after 18 months and once cognition came back onboard some months after, I even managed to trade in my old car for a newer one and my hubby was only there in case.
I attend a strength & class run by Age UK once a week, you might want to check see if there’s one running in your area. I know it’s normally for the over 50’s but we do have some younger with similar issues to us. It’s good because it’s chair based which solves the issue with dizziness; you could also find those online to do at home if you’re not able to get out. I also do a body balance class which is circuit training using battle rope, TRX for squats and pull ups, kettle bells/dumb bells 5-10Kg, SkiErg, rowing machine, etc. I usually treat that class as my warmup to prior to doing my own weight resistance training, nothing too heavy though, I certainly can’t using half the weight plates on the machines, but then I’m not aiming for a body builders physic 
But I do spend about 2hrs a day, four days a week at the gym now and I can still manage to do a spot of house work, cooking, or whatever else on top of it all.
So you see, it’s still very early days for you, but you will get there! Just learn to relax and go with the flow of you body and mind. Your brain is charge now and won’t let you push it beyond its current capabilities for a very good reason. It’s running a much reduced service so it can’t give you anything more until it’s finished doing its repairs or building new pathways. The fear will subside in time as you continue to improve 
Lorraine