Hey AVM Family- I just recently joined and was curious if anyone has had a surgical removal of an AVM near the speech section of the brain? I am sitting her by my sweet and precious girlfriends side who had her AVM removed Tuesday mid-morning… If so what post surgery complications did you or a loved one run into and what did you discover was helpful to get the wheels rolling down the path to recovery? I appreciate any thoughts or opinions on this as we have ran into a few being lack of attentiveness, lack of communication, and as expected some issues with speech and words… Thanks again for your thoughts and I look forward to battle this with her and being the support she needs to see this through…
-Justin
Justin,
It probably is too early for your girlfriend to get the neurological tests to see if she needs therapy. Are they planning on sending her for rehab?
I had a rupture on the left side where your speech/language is effected. I believe the testing was done at the rehab center.
Stay Strong & Positive.
Yes- they found a little swelling last evening but have been addressing that and her alertness is slowly improving… This is all foreign territory for me so I have no idea what to except and am now realizing it will be a journey… They mentioned doing speech therapy- luckily she has been able to eat some applesauce today which is a blessing bc she was going on 48hrs without any food and I know food is vital in the healing recovery process… If you don’t mind me asking how did you respond post surgery when it came to nutrition and speech- she is able to talk just words are all mixed up and asking direct questions we don’t get the proper response at this time… Thank u for taking the time to write me back-
Kudos to you Justin for wanting to help her through this. Like the others have said, it's really too early to tell what, if any, defecits she will have and if they will persist. Once she is more alert and responsive I would imagine her doctors will do some tests to determine what was affected. That will help them establish what kind of rehab therapy is needed. In my case, some of my defecits weren't really apparant until I was well into rehab. Best wishes to you and to her on her journey to recovery.
I don't remember, but my daughter told me they call not being able to speak correctly, word salad.
Having surgery on the left temporal lobe does cause problems speaking. It will get better, it just takes time. You are an amazing boyfriend, Justin! Keep fighting for her!
Thank you so much for the info- I will keep on reading and praying and just take it one hour at a time… Y’all’s words mean a lot to me and our loved ones- she’s a fighter that’s for sure and we will get through this!!
Hi Justin after my AVM removal 7th July this year (few weeks ago :) ) I had speech issues , This this was due to brain swelling but also to not taking it easy enough. I found that I knew the words etc .. but it was hard to get them out clearly (Like my mouth wasn't working as well ?) My AVM was on my right Temp Lobe. My speech has came back and is just about normal now but what I've found is if I'm tired (And just about anything even sitting up and talking makes me tired) then my speech is affected a little. So my advice would be to take things as easy as possible and get as much rest as you can , Also don't try to speak when you have anything in your mouth (like maybe tiny bits of food ) as this just confuses things also. Well did for me.
Hope you have good health and happiness :) Take care !.
I had trouble answering simple questions the day after my surgery and it was getting progressively worse.It ended up being an acute dural hematoma and I had an emergency craniotomy. After that I just had minor aphasia issues that went away over time. I didn't speak much the first few weeks after surgery - I was just too tired. It's awesome you're helping your girlfriend!