Cry Tears
12-02-2006, 01:08 PM
Has anyone had an intestinal AVM?
I had one in my upper small intestine. It bled for many years causing my life to be a virtual nightmare.
When I first began feeling "unwell" I went to the emergency room when I nearly fainted and had chest pain. Doctor there refused to do just the basic lab work on me....told me I was just having a panic attack.
So was sent home. 2 weeks later I fell asleep while driving.
I went to a different doctor who drew some blood samples and discovered my hemaglobin was very low at 5.1hgb. I was near death it was so low.
I had over 25 transfusions over the next year till they opened me up to do a bowel resection because of Crohns disease. The surgeon felt the diseased area was not the source of the bleeding so he searched my entire intestines and found the AVM...baseball sized...bleeding away....ready to burst.
So far this is the only one they've found. I've read that you are born with them and can have numerous ones.
I'm so thankful they found mine before it burst.
blessings to all fellow AVM sufferers. Cheryl
I had one in my upper small intestine. It bled for many years causing my life to be a virtual nightmare.
When I first began feeling "unwell" I went to the emergency room when I nearly fainted and had chest pain. Doctor there refused to do just the basic lab work on me....told me I was just having a panic attack.
So was sent home. 2 weeks later I fell asleep while driving.
I went to a different doctor who drew some blood samples and discovered my hemaglobin was very low at 5.1hgb. I was near death it was so low.
I had over 25 transfusions over the next year till they opened me up to do a bowel resection because of Crohns disease. The surgeon felt the diseased area was not the source of the bleeding so he searched my entire intestines and found the AVM...baseball sized...bleeding away....ready to burst.
So far this is the only one they've found. I've read that you are born with them and can have numerous ones.
I'm so thankful they found mine before it burst.
blessings to all fellow AVM sufferers. Cheryl