My Venous Malformation Treatment Journey

This 9th session was on the 3rd of January 2024.  The insurance company wanted to see a scan this time too. So while I was at the lab to get the ultrasound report, the technician told me that there are a lot of malformations at the base of my thumb. This time I mentioned to the doctor that I started feeling some pain in the elbow region as well besides mentioning what the technician told me. This time the doctor focused more on the forearm close to the elbow.  Details:- The total ethanol injected was 17.5mL. 14mL near the elbow and 1mL + 1mL + 1.5mL around the base of my thumb. I was happy that the elbow region had dilated veins which resulted in getting the landing zone for the injections. But it did concern me that the doctor said that it would be the last session in September. I was concerned that perhaps these malformations are growing back. I discussed this with the doctor after the treatment and he said that the chances of that are very low. He said that he most likely missed it

 Spoke too soon, regarding my last session being the final session. This 8th session was on the 20th of December 2023. I initiated this request after I started feeling some pain in my wrist. I had been doing a lot of pushups and jump roping with a heavy jump rope. I also did some weightlifting. I did gain some muscles and for the most part it went smoothly. But starting December I felt like I needed to do something about the pain my wrist that seemed to keep growing. I called the doctor and told him that I was having some pain and he asked me to get a color doppler ultrasound of my forearm and after that we booked a session for the 20th of December. Details:- The total ethanol injected was 18mL. It was done mostly near the wrist region.  I did feel a relief in my wrist the very next day.  I am writing this on 9th Jan 2024 and while I did feel some relief in the pain after the procedure, I did feel some pain afterwards. We agreed to do one more session 2 weeks later because while doing

  Had my last and final session on the 8th of September 2023.  As in all the previous sessions, everything went smoothly and here I'm just going to highlight the changes:- The total ethanol injected was 7mL. 2ml + 2ml + 3ml. I had got admitted on the 7th and we were meant to have back to back sessions like last time but on Thursday, it was a holiday at the hospital because of Janmashtami and they couldn't find an anesthesiologist. So I ended up having just one session on the 8th. After the session, Dr. Mohal Banker said that the remaining malformations were all so small that it would be risky to try to inject ethanol into them. And he said that all the major malformations are destroyed. He mentioned that there is a 5% chance that it might return again and if it does we may be able to do these sessions again. 

As in all the previous sessions, everything went smoothly and here I'm just going to highlight the changes:- Unlike the previous sessions, where I had only one session for the trip, this time I got 2 sessions on consecutive days, one session per day. The doctor had informed me last time that he was going to adopt this strategy because now my malformations are getting smaller and it takes longer time to identify the landing zone and that he was going to focus on different areas of the forearm across 2 different sessions on consecutive days. This was great for me because it was more economical and also reduced the waiting time between two sessions. I had half the travel time/expenses and also the cost of the two sessions spread across two months would have been more. The total ethanol injected across both days was 22mL. Session 5 was on Thursday (18/05/2023) and I had ethanol injected across two sites - 10mL right below my wrist and 5mL on the palm. On Friday (19/05/2023) I had 7mL i

Had my most recent session on the 14th of April 2023.  As in all the previous sessions, everything went smoothly and here I'm just going to highlight the changes:- The total ethanol injected was 10mL. Each at 2ml per site at 5 different sites. Something that happened since the past session was that I had mild issues in my hand after the last session. Part of the back of my hand felt numb for a few weeks. And I could witness a considerable reduction in strength in my fingers for some time after the previous session. I spoke to Dr. Banker about these issues, and he said that it is likely caused due to compression of the nerves and that it will recover on its own. I was skeptical but so far everything that he's told me has been so. And thankfully he was right about this too. The issue got better on its own with time. And thankfully this time I have no such symptoms after the session. He confirmed after the session that all my major lesions are done with. Now what remains is predom

  As in both the previous sessions, everything went smoothly and here I'm just going to highlight the changes:- The total ethanol injected was 28mL. Before the session however, the doctor was aiming for over 40ml but due to issues with not being able to find ideal landing zones it had to be 28ml. This time, for the first time, I see changes in my palm. I only noticed this on day 4. I can see the blue discoloration under the skin of my palm has decreased to a certain extent. It's not fully gone but definitely it's improved. Unlike the last 2 sessions, this time I had some residual pain from previous session. The doctor asked me to estimate what % of the pain was left over and I told him about 10% and he said even 20% is fine, but if it goes beyond that we may have to space out the sessions a little more than 2 weeks. One other important change we had during this time was that before the session started I asked for a marker and marked the areas where I have the most pain. And