[Leica] Back from Hell

["Grant H. DeNormandie" <barter@netnitco.net>]

Well I survived the Gamma Knife. It’s some ordeal. Thank goodness I had a
good nurse. Her name was Connie and she was with me from 6 AM until 9 PM.
The day starts with 12 painful injections into the skull. The injections
are to numb the skull for further injections of painkiller.  Then a square
metal frame was attached to my skull with four lag bolts.  They just screw
them in with common automotive tools. Didn’t seem very high tech but it
worked.  I was told that the four small pieces of alloy that make up the
frame cost $20,000 to replace.  They looked like a $10 item to me.  

Then I went for the brain angiogram.  This was shorter than the last one I
had. Thank goodness. This is one test you don’t want to endure.  They run a
tube from your groin to your brain and inject a dye.  

Then hours of waiting while the doctors map out the AVM and input the
coordinates to fire the Gamma Knife.  Late in the day the start. They put
my head (with frame) into a larger helmut. Again common tools and I am
bolted into the helmet. I then get sent into the Gamma Knife machine. It is
large, similar to the CAT Scan machine you see in the hospitals.  I was
told that it weighs 22 tons.  They had to put it in the basement.  There is
no sound and feeling as they shoot the rays.  They shoot for ten minutes
and then out with you and into a different helmet.  Back in for another
shoot. This went on for almost 3 hours.  About the middle of the treatment
the doctor (who also I one of the originators of this machine) pulls out
his digital camera and takes my picture in the frame.  He likes my smile
and tells me that I will be up on both his and the hospitals website
shortly. SO I sign his photo release and go back in the gun.  We will have
to watch for it.  

After the treatment I was told that my brain would swell from the trauma of
the Gamma rays.  So they put me on a drug to reduce swelling. I will be on
this for 4 more days. It works fine so I am not getting headaches. But it
has a serious side effect of lowering the body’s resistance to disease.  I
have to stay away from people. There are special risks regarding TB.  

Otherwise I feel normal.  The gamma knife only starts a decaying process of
the AVM which is just a bundle of malformed veins.  It will take another
angiogram in 12 months to see the progress. Some people are completely
cured in 2 years but most take 2 years 6 months. Also, to get all of it
they have to go right to the edge of the AVM which means some brain tissue
will be effected.  The side effects will not manifest themselves for 3 to
12 months.  So whatever brain damage I suffered is not immediately
revealed.  Hopefully it will be minor. 

Well that’s all there is to tell.  I had push button self administered
Morphine all day long with Valium to start the day so everything is not as
clear as it could be. The doctor told me that as much as 3% of the
population may have AVMs but since so few people ever get a scan they will
never know until the have a bleed.   We just heard from friends who lost
their 13 year old daughter. She had an undiagnosed AVM and her first
“bleed” killed her.  I guess God has watched over me all these years and
has a purpose to keep me here. 


Your friend,

Grant