I'm still alive

My poor tree after the big snow storm

I realize that I have disappeared from the bloggerverse for quite some time now, but I have a good excuse. 

My last post was about my very uninformative ER visit, which was the beginning of all this. At the time I had no idea what was wrong with me and I wouldn't know until last Friday. After seeing numerous doctors, getting more coordination and vision tests than I care to remember, and three MRIs, I finally had my answer. 

I have a vertebral artery dissection (VAD). Basically, what I thought was a mysteriously pulled neck muscle a month ago turned out to be a tear in one of my arteries from my neck leading to my brain. The day I went into the emergency the first time with what I thought, and the doctors thought, was a migraine, was actually what my neurologists says might have been a little stroke. I won't ever know for sure considering I have had no long lasting symptoms aside from a small issue with short-term memory but I fit the bill in every way. 

All that said, I am now healing. I have to take baby-aspirin like an old person to help makes sure I don't get any clots, but I should be back to normal soon. I am still dealing with some off-balance feelings every once in a while, but my vision finally came back completely around a week ago and I am close to a week no headache or neck pain. 

Still, there's that possibility that I could get a clot and have a large stroke, so I won't feel completely confident until I go back for another MRI in a couple months and they tell me that it has healed. 

Needless to say, I was advised to never see a chiropractor, to be very mindful of over-stretching my neck or any sudden and strong neck movement. Oh, and I can't do any sit-ups; there goes my  washboard ab dreams. 

All-in-all, I am happy that it wasn't anything worse. Even though I have no health insurance and have basically just amassed an unbelievably large amount of debt (we're talking two ER visits, one CT scan, more blood work than I think blood in my body, and two MRIs-I didn't have to pay for the third), I'm glad it prompted me to finally go get some glasses; I am thankful that everything else came back saying that I am healthy, even if I do have a little extra stuffing around the middle. Mostly, I am just relieved that after three weeks of seeing doctors and getting poked and prodded, I have not been back to the hospital in almost a week and I am feeling like myself again. 

As for "Compose Yourself," I am going to give myself another week to fully recoup, since I have a midterm on Monday anyways, but I will be back at it next Monday.  

Anybody else ever had an artery dissection???