Welcome!
I had a dural arteriovenous fistula in my right occiput over 2015-2017 and had an embolization in April 2017. You can see me going through the agony of sleep, propped up on three pillows here:
I was also in the spare room by this time. So I know exactly how you feel.
My doctor didn’t give me a Cognard classification for mine but I think I was a IIa+b because I was getting dizziness and an area on the outside of my head that was pulsing as well as whatever was going on inside.
I assume the pulsatile tinnitus is getting louder over time? Mine first appeared as the quietest sound you can imagine that you might just hear with your head stuffed into a pillow back in autumn 2015. By Jan/Feb/Mar 2017 it was like having the washing machine on pump out next to my head all night. Very noisy.
So… I had an embolization as well. I can honestly tell you it went absolutely fine. If I ever needed to go round and do it again, I would do it again. I think the fear of the unknown is a good part of the trepidation that we feel. There are definitely risks to it, so you must go into it knowingly, but it’s a perfectly gettable throughable operation. If I can get through this stuff, so can you.
Did I feel back to normal afterwards? No. If you read my story linked above you’ll see the worries I had post op. It took me 1½-2 years to feel back to normal but I went back to work after 3 weeks and rejoined society after only a couple of weeks but it took a long time for me to believe that I was fixed post op.
Ask anything you need. I’ve been there.
Lots of love,
Richard