Just please rest assured: angiograms are nothing to fret about.
Hi Kheli,
Get in touch on PM if you want. I'd say, like the others, that overall it's not a bad scene.
It didn't really hurt at all during the procedure. What's surprising is that there were a dozen screens and machines all around--maybe 2 dozen-- but, I liked my doctor and team and they played whatever music I wanted to hear and made me feel comfortable. They seemed to be busily using all the screens so somehow that made them feel less intimidating.
And with that hyper-medicalized, super-mechanized room, there are some weirdnesses as with the actual procedure; but not pain--even when i clipped my neck artery it didn't hurt just felt really weird. (like i was peeing inside my face).
Immediately after I was sore especially in the leg and they make you lie in a stupid position--at least for me with back problems--so that the incision site will clot (I got the plug which goes much faster than old skool style stitches).
Post-angio I had some really crappy headaches & it felt like I still had the dye in my head for about 3 days. Which means I felt weird and sometimes bad and sometimes I had killer headaches (though I'm prone to those already). Day 3 was actually the worse day, it all hit me and hurt so much. But then yesterday (day 4) it had cleared and I was fine (relatively, for me anyways).
So, while everyone says it's nothing....it's still kind of a weird experience so if you know that it's probably easier to relax. I've got a pretty good sized bruise near my plug but it doesn't hurt.
Bonus: I got to see the films of my avm while I was on the table and they look like microscopic views of sperm. So that was kind of funny.
Good luck to you!
When I was 9, I was playing hockey at a friend’s house and I just suddenly felt a massive amount of pain throughout my skull, focused in the back of my head.
Too, Gaahla, following your angiogram, your doctor(s) will have a better concept of how potentially operable or inoperable your AVM is. If its inoperable, you can embrace that and move on with the rest of your life. If its feasibly able to be shrunken or surgically removed, you can, potentially, consider planning to do more research as to where and when the shrinking or removal surgery could take place.