I am in the process of sceduling cyberknife surgery and I am extremely nervous about possible long term side effects of radiation thrapy. Do any of you have any ideas?
They have not discussed epilepsy! I will ask them about it. Thank you for your reply…I am quite scared about all of this.
Dianne- I think a lot has to do with the brain functions near your avm. Your neurologist should be able to tell you what happens there. If you had some problems with body funtions after the bleed, that might give you a clue. For example, if your right arm was numb, that part of your brain probably controls that limb.
When they do the radiation, its possible that it may aggravate whatever issues you originally had with the AVM - at least that’s what happened with me.
Long term? Generally the studies show little in the way of issues. The cyberknife is supposed to be tightly focused on that one spot, and hopefully not have impact on other areas.
Short term, you should ask them about necrosis and seizure risk- I think Ben had this issue?