Some back story, my biological dad passed away from a sudden heart attack before I was born. He had a history of health issues, including migraines, which I also started to get about a year before this all happened. Knowing his medical history, the doctor suggested I get a baseline MRI, just to make sure everything checked out okay. The MRI was only supposed to take 20 minutes, but then it turned into 60 and then 90. Looking back, I knew that something was off, but I didn't think too much of it. The following day, both of my parents came to pick me up from school. That's when I definitely knew that something was wrong because having both of them pick me up just never happened.
That afternoon, my parents told me that the doctors found something during my MRI and that I needed to get a procedure done. Mind you, I had just gotten out of baseball practice, so this wasn't the kind of news I was expecting.
A few days later, I met with the neurosurgeon, and he explained that I had an arteriovenous malformation, or an AVM. Basically, while I was developing in the womb, some arteries and veins developed abnormally and grew into a clump. This caused an unusual amount of blood flow, which led to brain aneurysms. I specifically had four brain aneurysms; two going in and two going out. Thankfully, the doctors found out before it hemorrhaged. To put things into perspective, if it had hemorrhaged, I would've had a 50% chance of survival. At just 16 years old, I didn't quite know how to process it all.
After learning more about the AVM, the neurosurgeon gave me two options: gamma knife radiation which would target specific areas of my brain, take three to five years, and had an 80% chance of getting rid of the AVM. The other option was a craniotomy, which would get rid of the AVM immediately, but it was very invasive and high risk. After about two weeks of sitting on the decision, I decided on the craniotomy. Soon after, they started the procedure by going into my brain and putting an onyx to stop the blood flow to the AVM so that when they removed it the next day, it wouldn't be bleeding. The morning after that, they did the craniotomy and had to remove bone flap to get to the AVM. It was a nine-hour surgery, but thankfully, it was successful.
The rehabilitation that came after was tough. I was on pain killers, but the doctor said that I would be discharged within four to five days. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I was completely paralyzed on my left side, and I spent two weeks bed ridden. I could barely open and close my left hand. They moved me to in-patient rehab, where I spent three weeks re-learning how to use my left side. I worked on what used to seem like the little things, such as walking, tying my shoes and balancing on two feet. It was three hours of physical therapy a day, and even after I was discharged, I had to use a walker for a week and be supervised all the time to make sure I didn't fall over.
It took a total of ten months until I was completely back to normal. I was out of school for three months and missed my sophomore season of baseball. I didn't play in a baseball game until September, almost seven months after my surgery.
The whole experience really gave me some perspective; going from being perfectly fine one day to not being able to use an entire side of my body the next. Even the thought of never being able to play baseball again, it really just changes you. After it all, I felt thankful for the ability to play the game I really love because there are so many people out there that just don't have the ability to do certain things, and it's completely out of their control.
It's crazy to look back now, since it's not something I really focus on. I know that I am lucky to not only be able to play baseball, but to be able to do the little everyday tasks that we might take for granted.
