Jason and I met this afternoon with a couple of doctors from U of M’s radiology department to get information on how they want to treat Jason’s AVM and next steps to get the process moving. Like the doctors here in GR, they are strongly recommending that we move forward with treating his AVM due to Jason’s young age and his level of recovery from his stroke, and radiation is the most effective option given the location and very small size of the AVM.
With any procedure there are risks, but with this, those risks are minimal and rare. Because of how tiny the area is that they need to treat, they feel they should be able to “obliterate” it completely. Our next step is to meet with a neurosurgeon from U of M. A neurosurgeon and a radiologist will coordinate to map out the final plan. We can probably do this meeting virtually like we did today. After that Jason will have to get more imaging. They have to treat an extremely precise area, so they use multiple scans to pinpoint it exactly. The treatment itself is a one time thing, done in Ann Arbor, and Jason will go home that day. One of the doctors today told us that most patients report that they don’t feel any different after the procedure than they did beforehand. Radiation is not a quick fix though. After radiation, over the course of a year or two, the walls of the veins and arteries in the AVM will scar and close until it no longer has blood flowing through it. To monitor this, Jason will continue to have imaging until they see that it has been resolved.
It sounds like this procedure will happen some time in the next month or two, and we are looking forward to getting it over with. We have a lot of life left to live together, and this will give us the opportunity to do just that!
