Hello

[johnmwade]

My name is John Wade and I'm 42 years old. I discovered I had a spinal avm just before I turned 27yo in April of 1996 when it bled. The avm is large from T-8 to L-5 and I was fortunate enough to be Active Duty Navy so I went to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda Maryland where it was diagnosed. I had spent a week in 2 different hospitals in my hometown of Staten Island, New York without getting the diagnosis. I had a headache which got progressively worse throughout the day and wasn't affected by Advil or Vicodin. It woke me up about 5 in the morning and I hadn't been able to eat for the previous day. I drove to the hospital and vomited what looked like bile right before going in. They asked me if it was the worst headache of my life and I said "yes". They did a cat scan and spinal tap. The cat scan was negative but, the spinal tap was filled with 800,00 red blood cells. I was transferred to the sister hospital wher I was in critical condition. They did an angiogram the next morning which showed the blood not flowing correctly on one side of the head. They started me on a steroid drip which, immediately fixed the headache. However, this hospital believed that the doctor who did the spinal tap punctured the vessel causing the blood. They never checked the spine and after spending a week with no diagnosis, the Navy sent me to Bethesda. After an evaluation I was admitted and told them the story. The first thing they did was a spinal mri and discovered the avm. They planned an embolization and surgery if the embolization didn't work. The first time I went for the embolization they discovered my aveins/arteries were so tortuous, they needed the smallest microcatheter available so they had to order it. When I returned a few months later they told me they would shoot lidocaine through the avm first which would stay there for 20 seconds and then flush through. When they did that they asked me to move my toes and feet but, I was paralyzed so they discontinued the procedure and said it was inoperable. The following year a new neuroradiologist looked at my case and said we could do a partial emboliczation which, I did in May 1997. It was successful to shrink the space in the avm and prolong another bleed. For th past 13 years it has been ok. However, recently I've been having some tingling and cold sensations in my feet. Can the avm cause a cold or freezing feeling. I know it can cause heat sensations. Any thoughts. Please let me know.