Look Inside My Head
Click on PLAY to view the vertebral arteries in my head.
Some Background Information: The vertebral arteries are the two arteries that go up the back of the neck and supply the brain with blood. In this angiography, you will see that my Left vertebral artery is dominant – it is HUGE in comparison to the Right vertebral artery. It is common for a person to have one vertebral artery that is dominant. A certain percentage of people also have one hypoplastic (underdeveloped) vertebral artery. According to Dr. Timothy Hain, “When this occurs, rotation of the head to the end of range may block the other side and cause brainstem ischemia.”
Videoclip made by Dr. David Enterline
My CT angiogram. “Left vertebral (left lower) is large and dominant. Right vertebral (right lower) is small and hypoplastic. This is the same case as shown in the selective vertebral angiogram below.”
Selective Vertebral Angiography pictured below on the left. “Demonstrates that left vertebral (on left) is large and normal, while right vertebral artery is small and does not fill the basilar artery. Note the normal “kink” that occurs in the vertebral artery around C1-C2.”
Read more about my case: Chiropractic Induced Vertigo
Twilight Insight 
Amazing site!! I’m stunned and very impressed by what’s on here. I feel a real sense of sympatigo & community having gone down the same road. Congratulations, and I hope we have a chance to talk on skype soon. I feel the same way I did when I received a call on Saturday from someone in Chicage who (coincidentally) had a partner who had also survived an aneurysm. There’s obviously a lot of us around the place.
regards,
John
Thank you for your positive comments about my site. While there are many things that I have challenges with, I have tried to focus on what I can still do. A comment that I often get from people who have not experienced a brain injury, and sometimes even from those that have, is: “How can you put together a site like this and have a brain injury?”
There is still so much misunderstanding about brain injury. A person can be intelligent and have a brain injury, and can also be “differently abled at different times.” For example, if I don’t pace myself and conserve my energy, my cognitive functioning decreases dramatically. I have difficulty speaking, can’t think of the words I want to say, can’t remember why I walked into my bedroom or whether I remembered to let the dogs back in from going potty.
A few days ago I was working on a craft project and had so much fun, I forgot to pace myself. As a result, I couldn’t settle down to go to sleep and when I finally started to drift off to sleep, I began to have problems with central sleep apnea (different than obstructive sleep apnea). This is a malfunctioning of the brain where it tells my body that I don’t need to breathe. I wake up gasping for air because I have stopped breathing and have to stay awake and remind myself to breathe. It is a horrible experience when this happens as I feel like if I go to sleep, I will die.
In order for me to accomplish things like this website or arts and crafts projects, I also have problems with fatigue and frequent migraines. These are not things which are “seen”….thus making TBI an “invisible injury” and something that is very hard for “typical” people to wrap their minds around. Yes, there are a lot of us around. I am hoping to bring a better understanding about the TBI experience to others who are out there and have been misunderstood by their family, friends and even the doctors and other professionals who are working with them.
Angela