Confirmed date

Okay, so I confirmed with my doctor, February 23rd at 7am I will have my embolization procedure. If all goes as planned and the feeder is plugged, I will be in Roosevelt Hospital from the 23rd until that Sunday the 26th. I will then be recovering on bed rest in Monsey for a week.
On the other hand, if the embolization is not successful, I will be scheduled for brain surgery Friday morning, the 24th. In that case I will be in the hospital either until Tuesday or Wednesday, 28 or 29. And, I would still be recovering in Monsey.
Unlike with the angiogram, this time when I am in the hospital I am allowed to have visitors. I don't know the exact info on where I will be in the hospital, but if you are interested in coming to keep me company, please text or message me for the info.

Q&A

I am by no means an expert on this topic, but I have learned a lot about it. So, if you have any questions, feel free to text, facebook or email me. I am open to any questions. :-)

What are the risks?

I discussed the risks of all the options with all of my doctors, the risks for the conservative option and radiation option are clear cut and are therefore not an option for me. The risks of the brain surgery are minimal. Obviously there’s always a risk, but Dr. Ghatan said that he does 1-2 brain surgeries every day (not necessarily for AVMs, but still brain surgeries…) and he has never seen any long term permanent problems. However, he did say that there is a strong likelihood that I will be dizzy and not be able to focus my eyes for a few weeks, but that will go away.
Risks for the embolization are even more minimal. There is a 1-2% chance of risk with this option. But it is most comforting to know that Dr. Berenstein, the doctor performing this procedure, is the doctor who invented this treatment, so if anyone can do it right, it’s him.   
Both Dr. Berenstein and Dr. Ghatan were very impressed and surprised that we found my AVM before anything catastrophic happened. They said that every year I live with an AVM I have an increased risk of 4% of hemorrhaging. Understanding that I am 21 years old, I am up to an 84% chance of bleeding. So, it seems the risks of not getting it done outweigh the risk of having it done.

What's recovery like?

If all I need is embolization, the glue, then I will be in the hospital for 3 days and then I will be on bed rest for a week and then slowly I’ll be back to normal.
However, if I need the surgery, then I will be in the hospital for 5 days (crazy how it’s such a short time!) and then bed rest for 2 weeks and take it easy for 2 more weeks. And then I will be fine forever.

So, what's going to be with me?

After meeting with Dr. Berenstein, a world famous endovascular neurological surgeon, he can say with 60-70% certainty that he can plug up my feeder with one shot and that would be the only treatment I would need. However, he then sent me to speak with Dr. Ghatan, the neurosurgeon, to discuss what would happen if I fall in the 30-40% where the glue doesn’t work.
Dr. Ghatan explained to me that the radiation therapy is a non-option for me because of the location of my AVM. They are afraid that if they do the radiation, some radiation might (will) be absorbed by my brain stem, and that would cause permanent damage. He also said that the option of watching it is not an option for me for two reasons. Firstly, I am young and he doesn’t want me walking around with a ticking time bomb in my brain, and secondly, usually that option is used for people who have already hemorrhaged.
Dr. Berenstein, Dr. Ghatan, Dr. Schick and all the neurosurgeons in Roosevelt hospital discussed my case and all agreed that Dr. Berenstein is going to schedule me for the embolization and then, if I fall in the 30-40%, then the next day, Dr. Ghatan will come in and perform brain surgery to remove it completely.
I wouldn’t know about the surgery until after Dr. Berenstein does the embolization, then he will perform an angiogram and then he will know what the next step is and we will discuss it when I wake up.

What are the treatments?

There are 4 known treatments for an AVM. First, there’s the option of brain surgery, which is self explanatory. For this option they would go in and remove the entire tangle. The second option is radiation therapy, where they use a laser and kill off the AVM that way. A third option is something called embolization. Embolization is a minimally invasive procedure where they would go through my thigh and get into my arteries and follow the blood through my heart and to my brain where they would inject crazy glue right onto the feeder (the artery (or arteries) which are pumping the blood into the AVM.) the glue would hopefully plug the feeder and the AVM would basically die and disappear over the next 3 years with no repercussions. The fourth option is the conservative option, where we do nothing and just monitor the AVM.

What is an AVM?

A few months ago I went to the neurologist, Dr. Schick, because I was having horrible debilitating headaches. He sent me for an MRI, on the MRI they found that I had an AVM, arteriovenous malformation. An AVM is not very common, nor is it believed to be genetic. They assume I have had it since birth, but they cannot say for sure, because the studies are still very new as are the treatments.
Our bodies have arteries and veins. Arteries go from the heart to the rest of the body; therefore they have thick walls and are made for high pressure blood pumping. Veins go from the body to the heart; therefore they have thin walls and are made for lower pressure blood pumping.
An AVM is a tangle of arteries and veins, where arteries are pumping directly into veins. This possesses two potential problems. Firstly, there’s the potential for the vein to bust because the artery is pumping high pressure blood into it, and the vein is not equip to handle that. But there is also the other problem where the oxygenated and deoxygenated blood is getting mixed together in this tangle and that can cause issues throughout the rest of my body.
To get a better idea of the size and extent of my AVM, Dr. Ortiz performed an angiogram on Friday, December 23rd. For the angiogram, they went in my thigh through my heart up to my brain, injected dye, and took pictures of the AVM with measurements etc. so they could have all the information about it.
The found that in my brain, in my cerebellum, I have my AVM. It is located 2 millimeters from my brain stem, which is what makes mine extremely dangerous. If God forbid, any bleeding or hemorrhaging were to occur from my AVM the doctors can say with certainty that I would not be able to recover, or possibly not survive that; because of the location. However, a bleeding AVM in another location in the brain would be detrimental but not life threatening. The doctors agreed that I did not need to rush into the OR tomorrow but I cannot push it off for even a year.