Welcome to Laura's website. This is her story of unbelievable courage and determination as she travels the road to recovery after a traumatic brain injury caused by a hemorrhagic bleed. Your love, words of encouragement and positive thoughts are instrumental in the healing process. Thank you all!
A brief synopsis... In July, Laura and her friend, Kim, had just arrived in NYC when she experienced numbness down her right side and excruciating spasms on the right side of the stomach area. They immediately went to the nearest emergency room at NYU Langone Medical Center. There she was diagnosed with an Arterio Venous Malformation (AVM) in the left front portion of her brain which had most likely been there since birth but, for unknown reasons, presented itself at this time. What she experienced as numbness was essentially a seizure caused by the AVM. An AVM is a tangle of blood vessels that interrupt the proper flow of blood through the brain which resulted in the seizure. The neurosurgeon who treated Laura advised that it was too dangerous to do traditional surgery due to the location of the AVM so Gamma Knife Radiation surgery (a non invasive procedure) was performed in early August. Unfortunately, this procedure can take two to four years to see results. Laura was on anti seizure medications but she still experienced breakthrough seizures on a regular basis. She spent a week in St.Barnabas being monitored while they adjusted her medications. Things were going fairly well until January 1st when she experienced an especially strong seizure. An additional medication was added which seemed to alleviate the problem. But, on February 8th, Laura experienced what she thought was her worst seizure yet. The symptoms worsened in the ER and an MRI determined that she had suffered a hemorrhagic bleed because of a ruptured blood vessel in the AVM. She had emergency brain surgery that night to stop the bleed and another surgery two days later to remove the AVM and relieve pressure on the brain.
Up to this point we have been keeping friends and family informed through daily email updates but this forum will allow you to post a message directly to Laura and to see messages posted by others. I am including a copy of all the previous emails in the first journal entry so those of you who may not have received them can be brought up to date on Laura's progress. Please feel free to share this website with anyone you feel would be interested in sending some positive energy and love Laura's way!
