So I was reading some people’s AVM experiences on another site and there seemed to be a lot of people who had flu-like symptoms before a rupture of their AVM and I just wanted to post something about that in hopes to better understand the nature of the beast… Or see if other people had similar experiences?
Before I was hospitalized with my AVM rupture, I had been feeling like I was coming down with a cold or flu in the days before…
A few years ago (before I knew anything about AVMs or MY AVM), I was doing a home improvement project and started to lay tile out on my kitchen floor. Needless to say, it involved lots of bending over. I laid all the tile out, cut them the way I wanted them to lay and all of a sudden I started feeling sick, like with the flu–chills, muscle weakness, headache. I never finished the project because I was laid up in bed for DAYS afterwards. It was all I could do to muster up the energy to pack all that tile up and put it away.
I always wondered what that episode was about, I just thought I had the flu and it chose that moment to rear its ugly head. But now looking back, I can see where all that work placed a lot of strain on the vessels in my head.
It must have been a small bleed with the symptoms I experienced!! I am just wondering if any other people had this happen to them before their AVM ruptured?
11/15/10 Found this video on youtube where a guy talks about having flu-like symptoms:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZGxW9RQQzk
I, too, had this to happen right before my AVM ruptured. My AVM ruptured on Aug. 26, 2009 but in the weeks prior to my rupture, I was trying to fight off something (sinus infection, flu = ?) for several weeks and just couldn’t seem to get over it. I had a ‘get-together’ gathering consisting of myself, my boyfriend, my daughters, niece, and two other people on July 20, 2009 and my boyfriend was sick (and almost didn’t come b/c he was sick & didn’t want to get anyone else sick). A few days later, I thought I had caught his sickness b/c I felt even worse than I had. I remember talking on the phone on Aug.11, 2009 to a friend of mine, whom moved to a different state & whom I was planning on visiting (which was nothing unusual nor out of ‘routine’ for me), and I remember saying “I just want to feel better”. The following weekend, my daughters and one of their boyfriends, and I had a cookout at the lake… all with the understanding that I didn’t have to do anything (as i still felt bad). (I was scheduled to have a ‘female procedure’ performed on Aug.19, 2009 & I was comtenplating postponing that surgical procedure until I got well from whatever I was trying to fight off. Luckily, a few days before my surgery date, I felt better (and did go through with the surgery).) In hindesight, I had a few bleeds, then the ‘flu-like illness’ for several weeks, and then a few more episodes of bleeding before my massive bleed. (I never knew I had an AVM before my massive bleed. Looking back in hindesight now, I ‘see’ several ‘symptoms’ that actually did occur prior to my massive bleed.)
The day my AVM bled I had been working all day, and all day I didn’t feel well. I was working in the office of an elementary school and thought I was coming down with something that was probably making the rounds around the school.
I had plans to meet a friend at a restaurant for dinner and had a little time when I got home from work before I had to leave. I remember wishing I could just get into bed and drop dead asleep, but I thought it would be too rude for me to cancel just an hour before the meeting time.
It was at the restaurant, as I was sitting down to the table, that the bleed happened. The rest, as they say, is history.
Since then there have been plenty of times where I felt drug out, run down and like I was coming down with something, just like I did on September 11, 2002, but the only difference is I haven’t had anymore bleeds.
Go figure.
I’ll watch the video. I think this has been mentioned here before and others said they’d had the same thing happen.
Thanks Cindy & Tori for replying, it’s very interesting to read these, I just wish there was a way to tell if they are avm related or truly just a cold or flu…
You are very welcome, Nicole. Yes, it would be nice to know whether it was or wasn’t related; however, the answer may never come for us from a ‘professional’ since not much is medically known about AVMs. Given that others have experienced this, I would be inclined to think there is a linkage between the two.
Nicole R said:
Thanks Cindy & Tori for replying, it’s very interesting to read these, I just wish there was a way to tell if they are avm related or truly just a cold or flu…