Hi all,
My wife (31) had a brain bleed last July, completely out of the blue. We are based in London, UK. We were lucky in a way—I was working from home that day and was able to call an ambulance immediately. We have a 3-year-old son, and at the time, my wife was pregnant with twins conceived via IVF.
The paramedics arrived within 10 minutes, and she was taken to King’s College Hospital soon after. She stayed there under observation for two weeks, during which she made some recovery and was discharged pending a craniotomy to remove a Grade 1 bi-frontal AVM. All other treatment options were considered less reliable. Neither of us had ever known anyone who’d undergone neurosurgery before—let alone heard of the term “AVM.”
We made the heartbreaking decision to terminate the pregnancy, as doctors advised it could increase the risk of re-bleed. We had just seen the babies’ heartbeats the day before everything happened. It was devastating. We grieved deeply but gathered all the strength we could for the sake of our 3-year-old son.
My wife had her craniotomy in early August. The surgery went well, and a follow-up angiogram confirmed the AVM had been completely resected. We thought we were through the worst of it. But then, in October, her surgical wound began to discharge. She underwent an urgent craniectomy to remove an infected bone flap and spent 41 days in the hospital on a strong IV antibiotic regimen. For three weeks, she ran a persistent high fever, the cause of which doctors couldn’t identify. I came close to losing the mother of my child so many times—it was terrifying. We were both just 31 and felt so unprepared for this. But my wife never stopped fighting and pulled through, despite everything.
Her fever finally subsided, when they stopped IV antibiotics and switched her to oral medication. But just as she was preparing to be discharged, she suffered an internal haemorrhage. 
We were incredibly fortunate that she was still in the hospital—doctors discovered an ectopic pregnancy that had caused one of her fallopian tubes to rupture. She needed emergency surgery, which ultimately saved her life.
She’s been home for the last six months, and we’ve managed to reclaim a semblance of normal life. But now she’s going in for a cranioplasty at the end of this week to receive a custom-made PEEK implant plate. This surgery will be performed by a different surgeon, who seems more transparent than the previous one. He has given us a 20–25% risk of complications. 
My wife—and our whole family—has been through so much. She lost her father to cancer in 2020. It feels unbearably unfair that this has all happened to her. She is truly the kindest and gentlest soul I know.
This forum has been a source of strength and motivation during the darkest moments. I ask for your prayers and good thoughts for her upcoming operation and recovery. I’ll keep you updated as things unfold.
Sending a big hug to every patient and carer out there. 