tnoptimum
04-20-2007, 11:10 PM
Hi all!
I posted in the Colloid cyst section awhile ago, but thought this one applies too.
My hubby of 32 years needed AVM surgery last summer following a collapse that was treated first as a heart attack (by the EMTs). Then as an aneurysm (by an ER doc at the heart hospital). And then figured to be an AVM (at the Neuro specialty hospital he was transported to that same night), along with a fistula and blood scattered around to make life interesting. My husband was in the hospital several weeks, mainly in the Neuro ICU but also in the cardiac ICU while he regained some sense and his strength, and then after a visit home for about 6 weeks, re-entered the hospital for AVM repair. He was there for 3 days (could have gone home in 2 if it'd been up to him) and started recovering his health and sense of humor. He kept having chest pain and we thought it was panic/anxiety following his eventful summer, but he went back to the hosp in November and when the cardiologists decided to go explore with a cardiac cath, they decided to put in some stents. The neuro had to sign off on that procedure first as they wanted to put him on blood thinner, and then when they got into his heart, they realized that one of the blocked arteries dipped down into the heart muscle and a stent for it wouldnt have held up. They got out and put my husband on the cardiac floor to come off the blood thinners and we waited almost a week...and then he had a double bypass. The surgery went well but he almost died that night when they had to keep giving him blood because he was "leaky". hmmm. He was in bad shape for several days, even though he only had 2 bypasses performed. When he got out of the hospital he was on home-bound physical therapy and just as he was ready to start a center-based PT program, he developed blood clots in his lungs. Out of everything he'd been through, he said that hurt almost the worst! We got him into the hospital and back on blood thinners and then home before Christmas. He started therapy in January and was finally feeling pretty good about 2 weeks ago and decided he'd better have the AVM follow-up MRI since it had been post-poned for his heart surgery. That's when a colloid cyst was discovered in his 3rd ventricle. He has to stay on the blood thinners for awhile, and the neurosurgeon felt we could probably wait awhile and watch it to see if it grows (they can be dangerous as they can cause hydrocephalus and they have been known to cause sudden death.)
I came back to Brain Talk this Spring for support and information, and hope you will bear with us if I bring up silly questions. I keep feeling like I should know more because we have dealt with neurological issues for years for our daughter (see signature below) but it can be so different for each person, and treatments and theories have really changed in the last 25 years!
Last night I found this quote to share from Eleanor Roosevelt:
I gain strength and confidence by every experience in which I must stop and look fear in the face….I say to myself, I’ve lived through this, and can take the next thing that comes along…We must do things we think we cannot do.
I posted in the Colloid cyst section awhile ago, but thought this one applies too.
My hubby of 32 years needed AVM surgery last summer following a collapse that was treated first as a heart attack (by the EMTs). Then as an aneurysm (by an ER doc at the heart hospital). And then figured to be an AVM (at the Neuro specialty hospital he was transported to that same night), along with a fistula and blood scattered around to make life interesting. My husband was in the hospital several weeks, mainly in the Neuro ICU but also in the cardiac ICU while he regained some sense and his strength, and then after a visit home for about 6 weeks, re-entered the hospital for AVM repair. He was there for 3 days (could have gone home in 2 if it'd been up to him) and started recovering his health and sense of humor. He kept having chest pain and we thought it was panic/anxiety following his eventful summer, but he went back to the hosp in November and when the cardiologists decided to go explore with a cardiac cath, they decided to put in some stents. The neuro had to sign off on that procedure first as they wanted to put him on blood thinner, and then when they got into his heart, they realized that one of the blocked arteries dipped down into the heart muscle and a stent for it wouldnt have held up. They got out and put my husband on the cardiac floor to come off the blood thinners and we waited almost a week...and then he had a double bypass. The surgery went well but he almost died that night when they had to keep giving him blood because he was "leaky". hmmm. He was in bad shape for several days, even though he only had 2 bypasses performed. When he got out of the hospital he was on home-bound physical therapy and just as he was ready to start a center-based PT program, he developed blood clots in his lungs. Out of everything he'd been through, he said that hurt almost the worst! We got him into the hospital and back on blood thinners and then home before Christmas. He started therapy in January and was finally feeling pretty good about 2 weeks ago and decided he'd better have the AVM follow-up MRI since it had been post-poned for his heart surgery. That's when a colloid cyst was discovered in his 3rd ventricle. He has to stay on the blood thinners for awhile, and the neurosurgeon felt we could probably wait awhile and watch it to see if it grows (they can be dangerous as they can cause hydrocephalus and they have been known to cause sudden death.)
I came back to Brain Talk this Spring for support and information, and hope you will bear with us if I bring up silly questions. I keep feeling like I should know more because we have dealt with neurological issues for years for our daughter (see signature below) but it can be so different for each person, and treatments and theories have really changed in the last 25 years!
Last night I found this quote to share from Eleanor Roosevelt:
I gain strength and confidence by every experience in which I must stop and look fear in the face….I say to myself, I’ve lived through this, and can take the next thing that comes along…We must do things we think we cannot do.