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About me

Dulce
From the AVM SURVIVORS web site: "Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are defects of the circulatory system that are generally believed to arise during embryonic or fetal development or soon after birth. Although AVMs can develop in many different sites, those located in the brain or spinal cord can have especially widespread effects on the body". I am currently undergoing embolizations with Dr. Wayne Yakes @ the Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, CO every 8 weeks! Our lives are either planning a procedure, having a procedure or recovering from a procedure! The trick lately seems to be to keep the "bleeds" under control! My husband Mark is also my caregiver! He has become an expert wound care therapist, not to mention all around bundle of being just exactly what I need to get through the day and this ordeal we call an AVM! I recently finished 10 years of Embolizations w/Dr. Yakes and am finally ready for my next stage - Debulking and reconstructive surgery w/Dr. Robinson in CO - he is a dentist and plastic surgeon! Best advice to an avm patient - Stay positive and surround yourself with supportive people! Lots of faith, prayer and love are all crucial too!
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Cyndi's AVM journey

Check out my Pictures at the bottom of the page!

Finally feeling better!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Hi!

How is everyone doing? I recently had a friend tell me that she finds it so hard knowing I am going through so much pain and everything involved with my avm. Told her I was sorry to hear her say that, but told her, "you know what would make me feel better"? "It's knowing that you value your health every day and don't take advantage of waking up and feeling good"! Please stop and smell the roses and thank God for your good health if you have it!

This morning I had what I call a case of "the weepies" and just felt overwhelmed over all my avm stuff! One of my co-workers noticed that I wasn't myself and looked sad and asked if there was anything she could do to help. I couldn't even talk about it without my voice giving me away that I was about to cry. Between trying to manage my pain, the recent bleeds, the puffiness under my left eye, thinking I had an infection, knowing I had a wound care appt. (and fear of bleeding during that) and having an appt. w/Dr. Zane to get my ear debried (which would involve more pain)... I was feeling the stress! I tried to get a grip and remind myself that @ least I wasn't having those awful nosebleeds that I used to have where I couldn't "put pressure" on anything to stop the bleed. Oh! I did get a little bit of good news from Rhonda Sharp (PA for Dr. Yakes)! I had told her that I had called Dr. Tschickhart for some extra meds for break thru pain ... and she of course said it was important to get my pain under control. She mentioned that Dr. Yakes had a patient that was on even heavier meds that I was to control her pain, and that finally Dr. Yakes was able to get that patient to a better place where she was finally only needing Tylenol for her pain! So Rhonda said this was a very encouraging success story! That definitely made me feel better!

So I went to wound care today. My mom picked me up @ work to take me and I was very appreciative of her being there with me for support! My favorite RN, Noel was the one cleaning my wound and redressing it. Dr. Larkin was thinking the puffy eye was a result of a topical infection caused by exposed cartilage in my ear. She prescribed Cipro plus for me to continue the Bactrim that Eric had prescribed a few days earlier. My appt. @ wound care went very well, no bleeds or any drama!

This afternoon I had my appt. w/Dr. Zane and mom went w/me to that appt. as well! Dr. Larkin had already told me she thought there wasn't much for Dr. Zane to get debried in my ear and she was right! It wasn't as painful as I thought the visit would be! Plus, Dr. Zane didn't think the puffy eye was not due to an infection - it was more that my avm is blocking fluids to drain "normally" therefore causing the puffy eye! Well, that was kind of good news! So, I'm feeling much better and I look forward to having a better day @ work! I'm very fortunate that my supervisor, Mr. Rios has been very supportive of what I'm going through and doesn't give me a hard time about having to leave work for my appts.!

Well, I had been in bed asleep already, saw that we had left the computer on and I was drawn to it to blog a bit! So, it's off to bed again for me, otherwise I'll be wanting to snooze @ work! Thanks for letting me boo-hoo to you a bit! It's onward and upward now! Y'all take care now, you hear?

Much love to all!

Cyndi

P.S. I need to take some new photos to include with my blog entries!

Posted by Dulce at 12:29 AM  

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