So before I write about todays update, I want to give a gigantic shout out to my awesome friends and co-workers who have truly supported me the last few days-- I appreciate you all more than you can know!!
I had my two year gamma-check-up MRI last week on Monday. I had received a report from the radiologist on Tuesday stating all was the same except for a "draining vein that redemonstrated." I tried to stay calm and think shrinking thoughts. Preparing of the worst possible scenario, I made peace with every outcome they could have given me. But I lost sleep and had no appetite while I waited for the call from Arizona-- it was the not knowing that was eating me up and I was a mess. But my faith was bigger than my fear and I was ready for anything they were going to tell me. After a lot of stress and, ironically, a headache, Arizona got my scans and read them.
The AVM is reacting to the treatment, as per this "redemonstrated" vein, and the AVM is stable even though it has not shrunk since last year. The redemonstrated vein is a draining vein and not a feeder vein to the AVM, meaning that there is no threat of it rupturing the AVM; it is working at draining the blood from the AVM as it pumps in. They said results like this in the second year check up are perfectly normal, but they do expect a huge reaction on the AVM's walls from year two to three so start thinking shrinking thoughts for my next check up in April 2016!
So while I did not get the shrink I was hoping for, I did get good news of a stable and appropriately reacting AVM. And with that, I can sleep for the first time all week.
