Spinal AVM

[Steve]

Hi everyone, I'm from Miramichi NB Canada...Here's my story:
Here are my symptoms over the past 7 years(in order as much as I remember):
1)A burning sensation in my left ankle followed by a terrible muscle spasm that ran the length of my left side.
2)Terrible back pain....more muscle spasams, tingling in my left leg
3)Pain that ran down my left leg (Doctor thought I had a herniated disc)
At this point I had xrays and a cat scan (Nothing showed up!)
4)Pain continued in my back and leg...muscle spasams too.
5)Constipation.
Doctor prescribed Celebrex...over a year the pain went away.
6)Leg pain returned... I took Advil when it bothered me (mostly the left ankle)
7)Trouble urinating (no steady flow)
8)A strange pain in my butt...experienced a couple of times...didn't last long.
9)Excruciating pain in my butt...immediately followed by Excruciating pain in my legs (both) It felt like they would blow up! My Bum went numb!
....This incident landed me at the ER! (April 13, 2005)
When my doctor realized that I was paralized from my bladder to my bowel, and could barley walk (Within 2 days) I was sent by ambulance to a city near me for an MRI...YEP it showed up a mass IN my spinal column...A spinal AVM
The Doctor there sent me to a nurosurgeon (Dr. David Clarke) in Halifax, Nova Scotia (http://neurosurgery.medicine.dal.ca/clarke.htm)
An angiogram procedure (2 hour) was preformed, with an injection of dye to visualize the AVM...and map it out for the doctor.
A second angiogram procedure was preformed to plug the 3 feeder arteries with a type of glue. In this 4 hour procedure (I was awake thru the entire thing) only one of the arteries could be plugged, but it was the largest of the 3...and the one that would be the most helpful for the doctor in the operation that followed.
The operation to remove the AVM was preformed on April 25, 2005...there was the real risk of being paralized from the waist down....but this was also the risk of not removing it!
The operation was a success...in that I was not paralized...I am now able to walk...my legs are still weak...and because I cannot stand on my toes, my walking is still quite awkward. ( I have stiffness and pain in my hip and feet)I am still paralized from bladder to bowel...(this carries it's own problems)I am hoping that I will get my feeling back in this area eventually...I have begun phisiotherapy. They say that real healing begins from 1 week to 6 months after the event and can carry on for 1 to 2 years.
Just a note here...for any one experiencing pain as would be had for a herniated disc...followed by bowel/ bladder problems...Please INSIST that your doctor send you for an MRI...as these are definite symptoms of a spinal injury/disease. I wish I had done that when those symptoms had first appeared!...as my doctor didn't pick up on that...He saw each symptom seperatly and never put them together.
Here are a few websites that I found particularly interesting:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/spinalarteriovenousmalformation- rst/symptomsdiagnosis.html
http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic2896.htm
http://www.paralysis.org/
http://www.medi-fax.com/atlas/spinalanom/case1.html