[color=Blue][/color]I'm a 35 yr old female and a mother of 2 boys. The 18th of January I have the first of 2 EDAS surgeries done at Massachusettes General Hospital by Dr. Christopher Ogilvy. I was told that the EDAS procedure is my only option. Other than that I would die alot sooner. I've been out of the hospital since July and since then I have had 2 mini strokes, one on Dec. 30th that lasted 15 min and it affecteted my left side instead of the right. Another stroke the first part of November or second part(forgive me my memory is shot)that affected my right side. Never lost mobility just went numb and tingly..my whole body even my tongue was split in half. Come too find out the neurosurgeon knows Gary Steinberg quite well. That makes me feel better knowing that. Dr. Ogilvy is a straight shooter,never kept anything from me. Told me that this is the worst case of Moyamoya that he has ever seen,due too the fact that some of the vessels in my brain are not there(wasn't born with them)and some are tiny-didn't grow as I did and some are closing in on themselves. I applied for SSI cause I can't work and the Moyamoya has given me an extremely short temper(Loose cannon) cause it has affected both sides of my brain and the frontal lobe. About 90 days later the 2nd surgery will take place. So now on the 13th of this month I go for a psych evaluation for social security. The headaches are getting worse by the day and I know that after the 3 hour eval I will have an extremely bad headache..any suggestions on how too ease the pain?

Dear Jan,

You are defintely not alone, that's why I posted a message " mental health problems after surgery".  My brother, Gregory was diagnosed with moya moya and had surgery in Canada 11 years ago.  Over the past year he has been becoming kind of schizophrenic.  He starts talking to himself and then starts knocking down things and lashing out at us.  You can't get him too excited because he starts talking about weird things-things he lost etc.  I think it's because there was brain damage before he was able to get surgery and also because he doesn't know how to voice his feelings- anger, frustration, sadness.  So you are definitely not alone in terms of mood swings etc.  It isn't easy for us , especially for my parents to see my brother- what he has come to.  We are going to do some tests to see if he has enough blood flow to the brain and brain scans.

I like your motto, "Think positive thoughts", and that's the best thing to do, and to know that there are people who care about you.

Take care, +

Maria.

Hey Laura,

Hope all goes well.  Please keep us in the loop on your recovery.

Aloha Pumehana,
Jan