I've been reading this site at work for about a year now, and somtimes as I sit there crying, my cubemate tells me I'm torturing myself by reading all the stories, but I have to. I haven't been able to respond till now. I've felt like this is MY place. You all know.
I am 39 and the mother of a 4 year old wonderful boy named Tim. My AVM started November 2, 1998. I woke up and knew I wasn't right. I asked my boyfriend to call 911 thinking I was having a stroke. He wrote it off as me having a hangover. I had been drinking the day before, but NOT enough to make me feel like this. My left arm would not do what it was supposed to do. I know I went back to bed for a few hours and when I got up I fell in the bathroom. This made him realize something was up and I suppose he called 911.
I lost about the next 2 weeks. Seems that they kept me well medicated because of the terrible headaches I had and they would bring me around to talk with me. The only memories I have are of a nurse yelling at me because I peed the bed and threw up all at the same time. As i came around more, I discovered that my left side was paralized, my memory seemed to be gone and I was emotionless. This really worried my family because I'm such an emotional person. I do remember telling Mom not to let them do brain surgery as they were wheeling me into the Operating room.
I'm the youngest of seven kids and boy have I put my family through hell. I've had the bad luck (well perhaps good luck, after all I'm alive) I was in the wrong place at the wrong time in 1995 and got shot through the chest with a 38. Survived that one too. So I guess I have an angel on both shoulders. My family was so good to me while I was in the hospital. I have one sister Joan that made sure my kid came to see me as often as possible, I was in the hospital for 5 weeks doing rehab. My walking came back pretty fast, as far as my brain goes, I'm learning not to doubt everything I think I remember but to just go on as if this had never happened. I don't seem to have the energy to do much, but I kept the same job - they were good too, they gave me very little responsibility for about a year or until I started taking on the new challenges on my own.
The embolization at Florida Hospital was a success the first time and obliterated the AVM - THANK YOU DR. HOANG-HELLINGER, you saved my life. That procedure was awful. I can still remember the flashes of light that shot through my eyes as the dye went through the brain. To hear that some of you have had that done so many times is awesome. I feel for you. I have to go back in another 2 years and have another angio done. Don't want to go. Headaches scare me.
A few days before x-mas, I was released from outpatient rehab. I guess the family thought i was "cured" and didn't seem to realize the confusion that was going on inside my head. I seem to have done a pretty good getting over it by myself though and feel so lucky. Cherish every moment we have is my motto.
Well, just wanted to tell my story, I wish you all the Best.