[vagabond]

What a gawdawful ordeal.

[11B2P]

Fuck man. My heart really goes out to you. Just hope you recover quickly from this. I had a Soldier that had something like that. It was causing memory and time loss. Turned out he had a tangle of veins in his brain. The Army removed it and medically discharged him and now he is on full disability. Good luck man.

[blueschica]

Originally Posted by Bells ↗

After treatment they give me steroids to manage the swelling. Day to day, I just take pain killers. Usually percocet and dilaudid, though sometimes it gets really bad and I end up in the ER on fentanyl. I am also anemic after the craniotomy. I lost a ton of blood and needed transfusions, so now I take iron as well.

When I had the necrosis and staph, I was on antibiotics for a solid six months. Keflex, Cipro, and a bunch of others I can't really remember off the top of my head. With the head wound, we used silver sulfadiazine and packed it with gauze and saline. This was all done at home with twice daily packing changes, my aunt is a nurse, for which I am thankful.

By far, the worst of all the medication I've been prescribed is Prednisone. It gave me awful insomnia and it turned me into an emotional wreck, all I could do was eat and cry. 0/10, would not recommend.

Steroids are devil cocktail. It causes necrosis of bone. This has to be incredibly painful and suffering. Wish u nothing but the best

[spookypooky]

CBD extract will help

[Wiley]

OK. The home "nursing" answers my questions
Sorry Dude

[Pyramid_Head]

I don't blame you; I would have touched my skull too.

[Lythal]

Holycrap! Thats a pretty crazy thing to go through! God pics!
So is this something that will require you to take meds for years ahead, to keep it from getting out of control like before? Or can they get rid of it for good?

[Kelseecat65]

Originally Posted by Bells ↗

After treatment they give me steroids to manage the swelling. Day to day, I just take pain killers. Usually percocet and dilaudid, though sometimes it gets really bad and I end up in the ER on fentanyl. I am also anemic after the craniotomy. I lost a ton of blood and needed transfusions, so now I take iron as well.

When I had the necrosis and staph, I was on antibiotics for a solid six months. Keflex, Cipro, and a bunch of others I can't really remember off the top of my head. With the head wound, we used silver sulfadiazine and packed it with gauze and saline. This was all done at home with twice daily packing changes, my aunt is a nurse, for which I am thankful.

By far, the worst of all the medication I've been prescribed is Prednisone. It gave me awful insomnia and it turned me into an emotional wreck, all I could do was eat and cry. 0/10, would not recommend.

Wow, you've been thru a lot. Keep up the positive attitude and good luck with the rest of your treatments!

P.S. I hate Prednisone. Talk about riding a wave of madness...

[Bells]

Originally Posted by LydKyd ↗

Holycrap! Thats a pretty crazy thing to go through! God pics!
So is this something that will require you to take meds for years ahead, to keep it from getting out of control like before? Or can they get rid of it for good?

It really depends on how I respond to the radiation. AVMs in general don't have a cure and the only way to be rid of it is to have it fully removed. They most commonly occur in the brain, and those are easy enough to remove (I mean, in comparison). As mine is in my face, inside of bone and muscle, it's not so easy to remove surgically. The problem with this is that if it's not fully removed, it will regrow aggressively. 98% of my AVM was removed with my craniotomy, but there was the small bit in my sinus that we couldn't reach, so my surgeon went at it with Gamma Knife back in March. Currently, I am experiencing regrowth, and I will be having an angiogram soon to determine the extent of it. At that point, we will be able to determine how to proceed.

It is most likely that I will never have it fully removed and I will go through life having regular surgical treatment. I'm okay with it. Since starting treatment in March 2011, I've had somewhere around 15 surgeries.

[Kel007]

Omg! I'm sorry you have to go thru this but thank you for sharing. I'm in the medical field. So I love learning everything I can. Never heard of this before. Feel better soon!