May 1978
I've written a complete description of the Arterial Veinous Malformation back in March of this year. Lifting the logs burst a blood vessell in my head. The veins had been swelling every time I lifted a log, and this was causing the symptoms. When I kept pushing myself, there wasn't time for the blood to drain from the cluster of extra veins and one finally burst.
When I lost consciousness, W didn't take me to our local hospital or even call for a squad. He put me in the car with TK and drove me the hours drive to my parents house. This I learned later. I still wasn't conscious when he got to my Mother. Mom told me he asked her what he was suppose to do with me. She kept TK with her and sent us to the hospital. So when I finally came to, I was in Marion. They admitted me and W went back home. (He told me eventually that he was worried someone would steal the tools he'd left out when he took me to Marion.) But, when he left, he didn't stop at Mons first or even phone to let her know they kept me. And, he didn't come back.
This was only about 3 months after she buried Joe. I can't even imagine what she was going through. TK was still a month shy of his 7th birthday and she was trying not to scare him. Dad was off on a sales call and his Company couldn't reach him. Because of the M.S., she had given up her drivers license. She must have been frantic. A phone call confirmed I'd been admitted, but they wouldn't tell her anything over the phone.
By the time I was aware of what was going on around me, they had already done a C.A.T. scan. They were able to tell me it was an aneurysm and that I'd been very lucky. The vein that burst had been tiny. It could only fill the available area and cause enough pressure to knock me out. After that it wasn't big enough to keep pumping. That saved my life. If the vein had been larger, I would have been dead, or a vegetable, before W got me to Marion. Of course this news didn't endure W to my parents. Though to be honest, going to the local hospital probably wouldn't have made any difference if the vein had been larger. And I was glad to be closer to my folks. They kept me in the hospital to see if they could determine how large the Arterial Veinous Malformation was. I had several more tests, one of which was very uncomfortable. I also described it back in March, but briefly, during that x-ray they inserted a tube in my throat and threaded it into my brain where they added a dye for the x-ray. (I had to be conscious to answer questions while they did it.) The pictures of that x-ray are the ones I still see in my mind. It showed a fist sized cluster of veins of all sizes that knotted and twisted aroung each other like yarn played with by cats. It was in the center of my head. Extra veins that I had been born with. When I lift anything heavy or push or strain, the blood can't get through the cluster fast enough because some of the veins are very tiny. So the pressure builds. Finally it all made sense. All those years of the symptoms not making any sense at all. All those years of headaches and having Doctors tell me there was nothing wrong with me. There was nothing to see till it bled and they finally ran a test that showed it.
My parents were both with me when the Doctor came in with that x-ray. He told us that now that I had weakened the veins and had one aneurysm, it was a "time bomb" in my head. He warned us that "it was very likely" I would be dead within a year. If I lived, I could expect the headaches to get worse. As we age our veins lose elasticity and another aneurysm was extremely certain at some time in my future. The location deep in the center of my head made any kind of correction impossible. They couldn't even see a beginning or an end of the A.V.I. to start from. Surgery would cause more damage then any help I could receive. I was 33 years old. (By the way. It's 2006 and I'm 61 years old. That Doctor scared us to death and I'd like to "talk" to him now. Wonder if he's alive?).........(He was right about the headaches getting worse though.)
When I lost consciousness, W didn't take me to our local hospital or even call for a squad. He put me in the car with TK and drove me the hours drive to my parents house. This I learned later. I still wasn't conscious when he got to my Mother. Mom told me he asked her what he was suppose to do with me. She kept TK with her and sent us to the hospital. So when I finally came to, I was in Marion. They admitted me and W went back home. (He told me eventually that he was worried someone would steal the tools he'd left out when he took me to Marion.) But, when he left, he didn't stop at Mons first or even phone to let her know they kept me. And, he didn't come back.
This was only about 3 months after she buried Joe. I can't even imagine what she was going through. TK was still a month shy of his 7th birthday and she was trying not to scare him. Dad was off on a sales call and his Company couldn't reach him. Because of the M.S., she had given up her drivers license. She must have been frantic. A phone call confirmed I'd been admitted, but they wouldn't tell her anything over the phone.
By the time I was aware of what was going on around me, they had already done a C.A.T. scan. They were able to tell me it was an aneurysm and that I'd been very lucky. The vein that burst had been tiny. It could only fill the available area and cause enough pressure to knock me out. After that it wasn't big enough to keep pumping. That saved my life. If the vein had been larger, I would have been dead, or a vegetable, before W got me to Marion. Of course this news didn't endure W to my parents. Though to be honest, going to the local hospital probably wouldn't have made any difference if the vein had been larger. And I was glad to be closer to my folks. They kept me in the hospital to see if they could determine how large the Arterial Veinous Malformation was. I had several more tests, one of which was very uncomfortable. I also described it back in March, but briefly, during that x-ray they inserted a tube in my throat and threaded it into my brain where they added a dye for the x-ray. (I had to be conscious to answer questions while they did it.) The pictures of that x-ray are the ones I still see in my mind. It showed a fist sized cluster of veins of all sizes that knotted and twisted aroung each other like yarn played with by cats. It was in the center of my head. Extra veins that I had been born with. When I lift anything heavy or push or strain, the blood can't get through the cluster fast enough because some of the veins are very tiny. So the pressure builds. Finally it all made sense. All those years of the symptoms not making any sense at all. All those years of headaches and having Doctors tell me there was nothing wrong with me. There was nothing to see till it bled and they finally ran a test that showed it.
My parents were both with me when the Doctor came in with that x-ray. He told us that now that I had weakened the veins and had one aneurysm, it was a "time bomb" in my head. He warned us that "it was very likely" I would be dead within a year. If I lived, I could expect the headaches to get worse. As we age our veins lose elasticity and another aneurysm was extremely certain at some time in my future. The location deep in the center of my head made any kind of correction impossible. They couldn't even see a beginning or an end of the A.V.I. to start from. Surgery would cause more damage then any help I could receive. I was 33 years old. (By the way. It's 2006 and I'm 61 years old. That Doctor scared us to death and I'd like to "talk" to him now. Wonder if he's alive?).........(He was right about the headaches getting worse though.)
posted by LeeAnn | 1:52 AM
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