Dear Family and Friends,
Thank you for your constant and specific prayers. We have some more information after the angiogram yesterday at UCLA. First, the angiogram went well with no complications and Andrea's stay in pre and post operative was really great (thanks to Lee McAllister :))!!.
We are blessed that the AVM is still relatively shallow and "most" of the vessels terminate within the AVM. Dr. Gonzalez reported that he feels the vessels are strong and don't pose a high risk for a bleed. We are also blessed that Andrea has some treatment options before her.
So far, it doesn't look like Andrea will be a candidate to have the AVM surgically removed. There is one artery that carries blood to the portion of Andrea's brain that controls her vision. Dr. Gonzalez has preliminarily suggested that we do not operate but rather do a combination of interventions through embolization and radiation.
Embolization is the process by which the doctors put a type of "sticky glue" into some/most of the vessels within the AVM. They do this through a catheter and not open brain surgery. The radiation is also a specialized treatment, but the results and knowledge if the radiation worked will take approximately 2 years.
We will be meeting with Dr. Gonzalez again this week as well also another vascular neurosurgeon, Dr. Martin (chief of neurosurgery at UCLA), for a consult and 2nd opinion before we proceed with any interventions.
In the meantime, we appreciate your prayers for the following:
1. That we can feel confident and peace in whatever treatment option we decide.
2. Both procedures (embolization and radiation) bring about an element of risk. Please pray now that these procedures will not contribute to any damage in Andrea's mind or body.
3. This is good news for us- but also hard news to have to live with the idea that the malformation might be forever with Andrea, instead of removing it offering a complete cure. Please pray that we as a family, especially Andrea, can give God complete control and find His gift of perfect peace that passes all understanding.
We will keep you posted as intervention procedures are scheduled. Thank you so much for your your phone calls, emails, meals, all of your offerings for help and especially your prayers....
With Love,
Andrea and Jason
Proverbs 3:5-6
P.S. If you would like to contact us, please email jason at jason.petsche@cigna.com or andrea at andreapetsche@gmail.com or andrea@belairpres.org
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