Hi, Kaye.

What exactly is gamma knife? I'm not familiar with it, and I haven't
found anything about it in the research I've done. Maybe you could
give me some more details?

Sara

--- In neurovascular@yahoogroups.com, Kaye McIntosh <gentleo@y...> wrote:
> Hi Sara. My name is Kaye. I live in Marathon, FL(in
> the keys). I am 47. I don't have an AVM. I have a CA
> (cavernous angioma). I was diagnosed Christmas Day.
> Actually they thought that it was a tumor. This
> happened when my husband and I were visiting my family
> in NC. I had a grand mal seizure and was taken by
> ambulance to the hospital. They did a CT and it
> showed a mass in my left temporpartial lobe. They
> refered me to a neurosurgeon in Cape Coral, FL( on the
> gulf coast). They put me on dialantin to control the
> seizures. I say the neuro a the first week of 1/05.
> He did a MRI and said that it was most likely it was a
> CA. I was scheduled to have another MRI and MRA in
> one month. On 1/10/05 I started getting dizzy and
> ended up in the local ER. My dilantin level was almost
> nil. They pumped me full of the stuff and kept me
> there for 2 days. I saw a local neurologist while
> there who ordered another mri and an eeg. While in
> the hospital one of the nurses told me about a
> neurosurgeon, Dr. Aizik Wolf from Miami, who comes to
> Key West once a month. I checked him out on the
> internet and found out that he uses the gamma knife.
> I saw him a couple of weeks later in Key West. He
> looked at my mri and mra and said that I was a good
> candidate for the procedure. I really didn't want
> open surguery. I don't like being cut on! I went to
> Doctor's Hospital in Miami on 2/22/05 and had the
> gamma knife. I will say it was an experience! It
> didn't really hurt, just a little uncomfortable. I
> had a followup mri last week and will see the neuro
> next week to see what he says about it. Hopefully the
> gamma knife has stoped the bleeding. I seems like it
> works better on AVMs than CA. Time will tell!
> Sorry I have been so long winded. Hope I have been
> helpful.
> Take care.
> Kaye
>
>
> --- Sara <saelenn@y...> wrote:
> > Hi, my name is Sara, and I'm new here. I'm 18, and
> > I'm a college
> > freshman in Alabama.
> >
> > I recently found out that I have an AVM in my left
> > frontal lobe. It
> > started about a year ago when I started having
> > random episodes where
> > I would pass out cold for several minutes with no
> > warning. I went
> > to my GP, and the first two times he wasn't
> > concerned. I'm
> > hypoglycemic, have a heart murmur, and have very low
> > blood
> > pressure. Both times, my blood sugar levels were at
> > the low end of
> > normal, and my blood pressure was around 90/60. He
> > said it was
> > probably just a combination of low blood sugar and
> > low blood
> > pressure.
> >
> > But the third time it happened, about a month and a
> > half ago, he
> > referred me to a neurologist because he was
> > concerned that I might
> > be having seizures. The EEG came up normal, but they
> > found
> > something abnormal in the MRI.
> >
> > Since then, I've had a head CT, a head CT with dye
> > contrast, and a
> > head angiogram with dye contrast. They found an AVM
> > about 1" x 1".
> > Tomorrow I go in for lab work and a 3-D CT scan, and
> > on May 5th I
> > finally see the neurosurgeon.
> >
> > I'm looking for whatever information anyone can
> > share because the
> > doctors aren't giving me much information. I got
> > more information
> > from my psychiatrist than I got from my neurologist.
> > I've done a
> > good bit of research on the internet, but I hoped
> > other people with
> > the same experiences could help me out and let me
> > know what to
> > expect.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Sara
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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