Hi my name is Heather and I am going to tell you how my life was almost over.
My mom had a AVM last August. I was 11 years old. It had been a normal night. My oldest brother was down from Frisco, Colorado. Me and my two brother's were all down stairs getting ready for my little brother's baseball game. So we went up stairs and mom was sitting there in her regular place just like every day. When we got up there she said she couldn't focus on Tony (my oldest brother) and she also said she had a weird pain in her neck and that she had a really strange headache on the right side of her head. The pain started going up the right side of her face. So Tony suggested that mom stay home. She agreed and we left.
We got to the field and we discovered that we were at the wrong field. My older sister had just pulled up and said "what's going on where are you going?" we said "it's at a different field" so I rode with my sister and Tony had said "call mom see how she is feeling". Charyn my sister was like "why" so she called mom and mom said that "Donny is coming home and taking me to the ER" (Donny is mine and my little brother David's dad).
When we got to the other field we watched the game. It seemed like the longest game ever. Right after that we went to Penrose Community hospital. We went into our mom's room. At first she was in a little tiny room. They went and took her for a CT scan and the doctor came in to talk to us. He had told us that she had a minor stroke. He then said that is was possible for her to die. We all went crazy when that statement came up. She then had to go into a bigger room. Which then the doctor said that they were taking mom by ambulance to Penrose Main because they wern't exactly sure what happened. So me, Tony, and Charyn went to lunch real quick like then we went to Main. David had gone with my dad.
When we got there we had gone in to see mom and after a while my grandma came into mom's room. So me and David went into the waiting room to see that our Aunt Terry, Uncle Frank, and cousin Nikki were there too. We sat out there and then my grandpa, uncle Steve, and some family friends had come. We were all sitting in the waiting room and Tony came out from mom's room and said "they are taking her in "Flight for life" to University Hospital in Denver because they also can't figure out what is the problem." was sitting there and all of a sudden I realized my mom was in "really bad shape" so I started crying really bad. My family tried to calm me down it wouldn't work. They came out and asked us if we wanted to see the helicopter and we said "yes" and we did. We were staying with our Aunt Terry and Uncle Frank.
The next day we went to Denver. They had taken many tests and finally the neurosurgeon found the problem. It was a clogging of blood vessels that had exploded they call this either a bloody stroke or an AVM. Dr. Breeze had talked to my dad and suggested surgery. My dad agreed and went in the room to talk to mom with Dr. Breeze. Mom had said "yes". Dr.breeze said surgery was going to last about 3 1/2 hours to 4 hours. It was due to start at 2:30pm and end around 6-7. So at around 5 we all started getting hungry so we ordered pizza. Dr.Breeze had called the waiting room and said that surgery was going to take longer then expected. We all waited and waited and finally 11:27pm the surgery ended. We went home.
Mom kept getting transported from intensive care to critical care. Finally after a while probably Aug. 2 or 3 she got into a regular room. On Aug. 5 mom came home!!!
She was on many medications and I was her "little nurse" as she called me. She got better and better time to time.
Before Thanksgiving Dr. Breeze took mom off of Dilantin which prevented seizures. Mom started feeling very dizzy. So Dr. Breeze put her back on them December 9, 2001. She's been feeling great since. Dr.Breze just called probably Januuary 15 or some where around then and told her that she could drive now. She's still a little leery about it, but trust me before I know it she'll be everywhere.
That was the scariest time of my life.