Thank you for visiting my Personal Fundraising Page.

My Arteriovenous Malformation Journey began Tuesday, August 26, 2008. I would experience what I believed to be just a migraine for nearly three weeks. The “migraine” would alter my eyesight, and cause my weight to plummet from 107 pounds to 96 pounds in (just three days), due to nausea. I would visit my primary care physician four days after experiencing these migraine type pains, and she would tell me that I just had a migraine, and prescribed meds for the migraine, and nausea. Despite diligently taking my meds, the pains would not go away. A little over a week later, I would go to Howard General’s Emergency Room at the suggestion of a coworker. I would inform them of everything that was going through throughout the past number of weeks. An hour and a CT Scan later, I would be informed that bleeding was found in my right parietal/occipital lobe. This would surprise me and the doctors.

I would get transferred to University of Maryland Medical Center later that evening. After an MRI, and a Cerebral Angiogram, I would get diagnosed with a Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformation (by definition, an abnormal tangle between the arteries and viens)– a condition I knew NOTHING about. A few days later, I would undergo the Gamma Knife procedure to obliterate the AVM, and spend the next two years recovering.

I feel very lucky to be alive, and I feel especially grateful that my coworker suggested that I go to the Emergency Room. If I hadn’t, I probably would not be here. I am participating in the Aneurysm and AVM Awareness Walk to spread awareness on this rare condition, as I believe that it will save someone’s life. In talking to many AVM survivors, a lot of them had no idea what an AVM was before they were diagnosed. At times, AVMs are often misdiagnosed as allergies, or just being a migraine. Some people with AVMs do not realize that they have it until something such as a seizure, brain hemorrhage, or a stroke takes place. I want to do my part to help the Aneurysm and AVM Foundation to better the lives of those who live with this rare disease, and to possibly find a cure.
 

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