With some of the symptoms I see described I want to be sure everyone alerts the DR to check the carotid arteries, at least with an ultrasound on the neck. My husbands headache was sudden and severe, though he had more symptoms than I see described here, some are familiar. Two Ers even a specialty well known teaching hospital er sent him home with a virus diagnosis with not one single ultrasound of the neck or even listening for a bruit with a stethoscope.

He did indeed have an extensive double internal carotid artery dissection. This was also missed by a neurologist. Drs had been trained that this was a rare occurrence in young people or people without trauma so they didn't look for it. It is indeed found to be the most common reason for stroke in young people. The less invasive testing now has discovered this. His was diagnosed after a MRA with contrast He had all the other testing, CT,ct contrast, mri, mri contrast, spinal tap, with the ers and neurologist, none were for this though, none were the MRA, or MRA contrast. No one did the simple neck ultrasound. A stethoscope listen can miss a bruit, but none of those were done either. He was diagnosed five months later at the mayo clinic in MN. He is extremely lucky to be alive.

I came here to see about my temporal sensitivity (slight, to the touch) . But some severe symptoms written here, and the lack of thinking about this possibility in the responses made me feel the need to bring this up.