Will Be Seeing Dr. Yakes
 

I have an appointment to see Dr. Yakes in October for a VM on my left arm.

I had also sent an MRI to Dr. Rosen. He seems wonderful, but is unfortunately not in my insurance network. He called back within a week of my emailing the MRI.


I am very scared for my treatment in October. I hope that I am making the right decision to do this.

The appointment has been made, and plane tickets bought. Hopefully we will not run into problems with the insurance.

And hopefully this treatment is helpful,not hurtful.

Best wishes, ash2887. To get in touch with other Yakes patients, you may wish to join AVMSurvivors.org There are more than 65 members there with arm AVMs -- they can support you through this and let you know what to expect.

Update
 

Hello,

Just wanted to give an update. I have been to see Dr. Yakes four times since October. I am very impressed with him and his staff and feel very lucky to be able to be a patient of his. The ethanol treatments have not been bad so far. I expected the worst, but they have been okay. I have had some nerve pain, but no function loss. Also, I currently have four skin blisters on my arm as my vm is very superficial. However, the reduction in pain has been amazing. I do not get the daily pain I used to, I now am only in pain if I use the arm for long periods of time. Also, after the three treatments, the VM has begun to shrink :) As a side note, Dr. Yakes seems to be a very caring man, it helps to have a doctor that has such a gentle bedside manner. I am currently planning my fifth trip to Denver and I am excited to make further progress.

Ashley

Thank you for the update. I'm so glad you've seen progress. That's encouraging.

Missy

That's great, Ashley!

Trip #5 went much easier than expected. Dr. Yakes did not use much alcohol and my arm hardly swelled at all. He wants to do an MRI to see whats left on trip #6 which will be in early May.

That's great! I would appreciate it if you would share your experiences at avmsurvivors.org on the Extremities AVMs group, as the information will benefit many others with similar avms and vms.