“Wow, an AVM!!!” The vascular surgeon proclaimed as I sat in my emergency department room. “Look! Look!” She was obviously amused and slightly baffled, I lost her voice almist my racing thoughts. A what? “And you’ll need to be seen at UCSF immediately”. (As if that’s a thing). My something cool suddenly turned to something scary.

Ever since I was young I had excruciating left leg pain. Pediatricians and doctors wrote it off as growing pains, though the pain did not dissapaite when I stopped growing, in fact, it continued to worsen, though unsure if masked by a torn meniscus at age 12. However, lucky for me I guess the MRI that showed the tear when I was 12 also showed vascular abnormalities which sent me to UCSF’s vascular anomalies clinic when I was 13 to be studied by a good handful of doctors who still had little clue about the Venus malformation or what to do with it then, and was told to keep an eye on it.

Back to present day. We are not without hope.

2 1/2 years ago I went to the ER for what I thought was a DVT. My leg, about twice its normal size, had a pea shaped knot protruding from the crevice of the knee or the “poplitial fossa” area. I went in and they discovered the AVM through diagnostic imaging of an ultrasound, x-rays, and Ct-angiogram. Now I’m back under the supervision of outstanding doctors, and while unfortunately we are at a standstill with me being on Eloquis (there’s not much surgery wise to fix it we can do while I’m on it) I have hope we’re on the right track for me to lead a less painful life.