Rachel Pena

Hello, my name is Rachel. I am 20 years old.  On Tuesday, September 27, I
woke up at 5 am with blood randomly pouring out my mouth.  It stopped
within 30 min. I then went back to bed assuming it wasn't a big deal. I
then woke up at 7 am and I started bleeding from the same spot in my
mouth. I then went to the hospital, which sent me to my dentist (Dr.
Clark) and then to an oral surgeon (Midsota in St. Cloud, Dr. Pena). In
that amount of time my mouth bled four times on and off. I lost about
half a liter of blood within those four times. As soon as the Surgeon
removed the blood clot from the spot in my mouth blood started pouring
out my mouth. The surgeon estimated that I lost a liter of blood in the
10 minutes I was at his office. I then got air lifted to HCMC. The
surgeon told me that I have something called AVM. It is a clump of blood
vessels that made its way up to the surface, which is the reason why I
bled so much. I then immediately went into a minor surgery. They put
glue to act as a blood clot so I would no longer bleed. I lost two
liters of blood within that time and had a blood transfusion. 10% of
people that have AVM live. I am very lucky to be alive today. They are
doing the same surgery of putting more glue on 10/04/16 which will help
with bleeding when they do my major surgery on 10/05/16. Along with the
clump of blood vessels I have a tumor.  They need to remove all the
blood vessels and the tumor, so they are going to make an incision right
under my jaw and cut out some of my jaw along with 7 teeth at the most. They will then put a titanium plate in place of my jaw, and will then wire my mouth shut (as if I broke my jaw) . There is a few different plans if surgery doesn't go as smooth as it is supposed to so I will keep this updated. I was very devastated and shocked when I found out all this news, but I now realize that I'm just lucky to be alive. I am also very blessed to have the support system I have. Big shout out to my mom and my boyfriend Jon for all the support. Prayers would be wonderful and I will keep this site updated.