Hi Family and Friends!
How is everyone? There is so much to write, I don't know where to begin! I'm going to start with the night before we left for Denver! So, Tuesday after work, we got Hanz's tote bag full of his things (food, bowl, snacks, brush, etc.) and headed to Rockport, where Marks brother Jim and his wife Shelley would be taking care of our furry kid! Jim and Shelley treated us to dinner @ HuDat - it was delicious! - then we headed back to their house for a bit. By the time we left (I did good - I didn't cry this time when we left Hanz!) and got home, it was late. Mark lay down for a bit and fell asleep. I stayed up late reading and doing a few things, like changing Sabas clothes. In any case, we should have changed my wound dressing that evening, but I didn't want to wake Mark up and figured we would take care of it in the morning. Well, I got up @ 3:30 am, and started trying to get some packing done. Mark got up and worked on my wound dressing and that really set us back on time! Our flight was to leave @ 6am and we got to the airport @ 5:40am. On the way to the airport, we were remembering things we didn't pack, so when the guy @ the American Airline counter said we had to take the next flight, I figured we could go back home and pack a little better!
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What are arteriovenous malformations?
Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are defects of the circulatory system that are generally believed to arise during embryonic or fetal development or soon after birth. They are comprised of snarled tangles of arteries and veins. Arteries carry oxygen-rich blood away from the heart to the body’s cells; veins return oxygen-depleted blood to the lungs and heart. The presence of an AVM disrupts this vital cyclical process. Although AVMs can develop in many different sites, those located in the brain or spinal cord—the two parts of the central nervous system—can have especially widespread effects on the body.
AVMs of the brain or spinal cord (neurological AVMs) are believed to affect approximately 300,000 Americans. They occur in males and females of all racial or ethnic backgrounds at roughly equal rates.
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What are the symptoms?
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Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM)
The University of Florida offers highly specialized treatment for AVM. Approximately 100 patients with AVM are seen each year at the University of Florida.
These Neurological Surgery physicians at UF are experts in the care and treatment of brain AVMs:
About AVM
Brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is an abnormal tangle of blood vessels in the brain which can cause bleeding in the brain, seizures, or stroke-like symptoms (weakness, numbness, tingli ng). The cause of AVMs is unknown.
Symptoms
Brain AVMs can bleed in the brain in which case patients may have a severe headache, nausea and vomiting, blurred vision, stiff neck, or loss of consciousness. They can also cause seizures. They may also cause stroke-like symptoms such as paralysis, weakness, numbness, vision problems, balance or coordination problems, or speech difficulties.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis of a brain AVM is made by CT scan, MRI, and catheter cerebral angiogram.
Treatment
The treatment of a brain AVM is either by surgery (opening the skull and surgically removing the AVM from the brain ), embolization (injecting substances into the AVM to block off the abnormal vessels via tiny plastic tubes inserted in the patient's groin and navigated to the brain by x-ray guidance and not requiring surgery), or radiosurgery (a one-time treatment of high-focused radiation to the brain AVM).
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Angiogram showing
a mass of tangled vessels | Drawing depiciting
endovascular catheterization |
Brain AVMs are either treated after they have caused bleeding, or in some patients, an AVM is found before it has bled, and is treated to prevent it from bleeding.
Prognosis
Once a patient recovers from an AVM bleeding, he or she can have a good recovery depending on the severity of the bleed and the disability caused by the bleed.
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AVM Awareness Walk in San Francisco in May of '09
I have this already posted as a blog but Ben suggested I post it here also . There is an AVM Awareness Walk in May in San Fransico, CA. This is thier 4th annual event . Please check out thier site as they just recently improved thier site just a few months ago . It would be awesome if members of this site joined together and met for this walk to raise money for the AVM foundation! HOW EXCITING ! Nothing is definate yet but I am gonna try my hardest to get my family out there !
Check it out !
www.aneurysmfoundation.org/ev_walk.html more...-------------------------------------------------
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5 Warning signs of Stroke
"Surviving Stroke: A Personal Story
Brain Scientist Jill Bolte Taylor on Her Stroke, Recovery, and the Warning Signs Everyone Needs to Know
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Feature
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
It all started with a headache -- pounding pain behind the left eye -- that wouldn't go away.
A healthy 37-year-old at the time, Jill Bolte Taylor tried to shake the pain with a cardio workout. But that didn't work.
Feeling rocky, Taylor headed for her shower. She noticed herself losing coordination and struggling with balance -- she had to lean against her shower wall.
The shower's roar startled her, and her sense of where her body began and ended was fading. "My perception of myself was that I was a fluid," Taylor tells WebMD.
When she got out of the shower, her right arm flopped against her body. "Oh my gosh, I'm having a stroke!" Taylor later wrote in her book, My Stroke of Insight.
As a Harvard-trained brain scientist, Taylor knew far more about the brain, and strokes, than most people.
And although on one level she was fascinated by what she was experiencing, the planning part of her brain, which was sputtering, knew it was do or die.
Taylor writes that she wanted to lie down and rest. "But resounding like thunder from deep within my being, a commanding voice spoke clearly to me: If you lie down now you will never get up!"
Calling for Help
Taylor was experiencing a rare type of hemorrhagic (bleeding) stroke caused by a malformed connection -- called an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) -- between an artery and a vein in her brain.
The bleeding flooded parts of Taylor's brain involved with movement, speech, physical boundaries, and senses. As a result, the concept of calling "911" was lost to her.
Taylor struggled to remember her work phone number, scrawling the numbers on paper. She writes that the numbers looked like "squiggles," which she matched to the squiggles on her phone.
A co-worker answered, recognized Taylor's voice from her groans, rushed over, and got her to a hospital.
After being in the hospital for five days for her stroke, Taylor later had surgery to correct her AVM. The surgery was a success -- but that was just the beginning of a stroke recovery that took eight years."
(more): http://www.webmd.com/stroke/features/surviving-stroke-a-personal-story...
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Well kids that is it... I've been in Mass... it was to see some of her family.
I sleeped through most of it.
Made it alright.
I can't believe than this is it for a week...
oh well enjoy amazons number 1's...
I'll catch you later...
Ha, so much for the new approach. You see how that worked out. I went even longer than the last time without a post... However, this time I have something to write about. If for no other reason but to get the thoughts out of my head.
(PDF file)
