Re:One of Life's Unexpected Whammies

[Guest guest]

, sorry to hear

about your niece’s AVM. Please let her parents know that our hearts are

with them as they go through this with their daughter. and I had a

similar experience with our daughter, , in April 2004. She was about the

same age as your niece (we learned that the onset of problems generally occurs

at this age) and had an onslaught of severe headaches leading to vomiting and a

trip to the emergency room. After the swelling had gone down and Becca was

alert, we all had a consultation with the local neurosurgeon. Basically we were

told that there were two approaches to resolve the problem. One was to radiate

the area and hope that it would heal the area of AVM or to perform cranial

surgery. The former would take up to two years before we would know if it had

worked. There were, of course, the obvious concerns with surgery.

decided that she didn’t want to wait two years so opted for surgery.

Everything went well, and the surgeon indicated afterward that surgery had been

the correct decision from what he saw when he got inside her head. has

had very few problems as a result of the AVM. She lost her peripheral vision on

her right side, which we had been told to expect, but is otherwise back to

being fully functional.

It was a very scary

time for us as I know it is for your niece and her parents at this time. Please

pass on to them that we have found the condition to be very correctable and

hope that our story will serve to help calm their fears.

Bob Dopher IPF 04/07

[Guest guest]

/MB/Bob

Oh our group is so wonderful. I do hope your neice's outcome is a good

as 's and 's. So good to hear how they both recovered. I'm

sure they value life today more than any of us did at their ages. I

thought in 's case how beautiful to take a blow like that to an

aspiring musician and turn it into something as beautiful as musical

therapy. I'm just imagining how many people will benefit indirectly from

her horrifying experience. I'm sure is even more special as well

in reaching out as a result of her experience.

>

> , sorry to hear about your niece's AVM. Please let her parents

know that

> our hearts are with them as they go through this with their daughter.

> and I had a similar experience with our daughter, , in April

2004.

> She was about the same age as your niece (we learned that the onset of

> problems generally occurs at this age) and had an onslaught of severe

> headaches leading to vomiting and a trip to the emergency room. After

the

> swelling had gone down and Becca was alert, we all had a consultation

with

> the local neurosurgeon. Basically we were told that there were two

> approaches to resolve the problem. One was to radiate the area and

hope that

> it would heal the area of AVM or to perform cranial surgery. The

former

> would take up to two years before we would know if it had worked.

There

> were, of course, the obvious concerns with surgery. decided

that she

> didn't want to wait two years so opted for surgery. Everything went

well,

> and the surgeon indicated afterward that surgery had been the correct

> decision from what he saw when he got inside her head. has had

very

> few problems as a result of the AVM. She lost her peripheral vision on

her

> right side, which we had been told to expect, but is otherwise back to

being

> fully functional.

>

>

>

> It was a very scary time for us as I know it is for your niece and her

> parents at this time. Please pass on to them that we have found the

> condition to be very correctable and hope that our story will serve to

help

> calm their fears.

>

>

>

> Bob Dopher IPF 04/07

>