No worries. These are all questions I would expect to be asked.

I know I'm going to sound like a broken record but this is why I keep emphasizing it was an acute injury. Again, our family made the exact same assumption after I came out surgery, i.e., that I had some kind of chronic issue or genetic predisposition. However, I don't.

As expected in this situation, I do have to take Plavix but only for 3 months. That's it. I've seen and have discussed all of my blood tests with the docs, which was a combination of my neurosurgeon and a number of neurologists. They all said the same thing which is that I have no signs whatsoever of any chronic condition and all my results indicate that I have no biological predisposition. My blood pressure, cholesterol, etc are all good/excellent. This is also consistent with past test results, e.g., life insurance exam, etc. In fact, the worst result I've ever had at any one point in the past was a low HDL result that corresponded with a period of very high training volume. A retest about a month later showed excellent results.

Is it possible they missed something? Sure, it's possible but their results are consistent with previous test results. Keep in mind, I also have zero family history here. Thankfully, there just seems to be overwhelming evidence that I'm incredibly healthy overall.

I suppose it's also important to note that I was out of the hospital in record time. I went into surgery Sat afternoon, left ICU Mon afternoon and left the hospital the next morning. I actually wanted to leave a day earlier but they said that would be impossible. As it was, nobody had been in ICU for that type of injury for as little time as I was there. After the first day in ICU they were telling me I could easily be there a week or two. That was 2 weeks ago now and I've already been on at least five 5 - 7 mile walks.

Regarding your comment about chiro-related injuries of this nature, interesting enough, that conversation came up with one of the neurologists. That neurologist said the most common dissection they see due to an acute injury is from a chiro neck adjustment. In fact, in her experience, it's so common that she encouraged me to never get an neck adjustment from a chiro. I know others might be saying, "WTF," but I'm just repeating what the neurologist told me.

Last thing, I've been told that I can start light training again after 2 weeks, which seems about as aggressive as it gets. However, this is where the guidance gets too fuzzy for me. Things happened so fast that I didn't really get the chance to absorb my situation and therefore ask all of the questions I needed to ask. My discharge paperwork makes statements like "No Ironmans until after I'm off Plavix" but it doesn't help me quantify the risk of training after 2 weeks. It seems to emphasize the risk of bleeding that comes with being on Plavix but what about the risk of getting my HR elevated too early? If I'm riding on a trainer then the risk of crashing is obviously reduced significantly.

After almost a week I'm still waiting for my neurosurgeon to respond to a slew of follow-up questions. Apparently he's incredibly picky about who communicates with his patients but he's also so busy that he can't respond in what I consider to be a timely manner. I'm just hoping to have a more dynamic conversation with someone who's been in a similar situation or possibly another neurosurgeon/neurologists.

As far as the probability of this happening is concerned, well, I suppose it's like winning the lottery. Someone has to win and in this case it was me. Unfortunately, this isn't one of those lotteries you want to win. Probability is a tricky beast to get your head around at times.