Michael's chat

We had just got up from our cafe table (Rosie in a wheelchair since she needs to not put too much pressure on her angiogram site) on our way back to the room to await the amigos when they came looking for us in the cafe. The four of us sat down at a table with Michael while Miika and David hovered behind us. Michael spoke to Rosie and told her the angiogram showed another little area of AVM only a few mm from the part they'd removed. The vessels in this area looked normal in the old scans and in the surgery but when the blood could no longer go through the main AVM area because it had been closed off, it became apparent that these vessels were abnormal too. They were now taking the unnaturally fast blood flow that had been going through the old AVM and so showed their true colours. It's quite hard to explain - I'm just getting the hang of it all after hours of consultations and looking at scans over the years.

Michael told Rosie he'd be going into this operation with the same attitude as last time. It would be a mistake for him to think that he had to make sure this was the last surgery no matter what. If there was doubt or any decision to be made during surgery, he would still decide cautiously because that is the safest for Rosie. Although the chance of having to do a third operation was very small, it was not an impossibility. He said that the one person in his 630 AVMs who had to have 3 operations had an AVM with some similarities to Rosie.

He was still reassuring, said they would fix it and said that the theatre nurses and everybody involved was asking how Rosie was doing and they were all rooting for her.

We're back in the room playing, doing the jigsaw etc and waiting for the Costantinos to arrive with pizzas. Sandro claims their favourite joint has the best pizzas outside Italy and when Rosie knew she had to have another op tomorrow, she requested a pizza party tonight for dinner.