Untangled A complex treatment regimen gets Aaron back home.
A
aron Eckman was working on his Paris, Missouri family cattle farm when he began having vision issues. “All of the sudden when I would focus on an object, the object would start moving. It would last 5 to 30 seconds each time and it kept happening,” says Aaron. Aaron decided to take a break. He went inside, washed his face off and rested a bit. He otherwise felt fine, but when the vision problems continued, he decided to visit his local family care practitioner.
18
BOONE HEALTH
Summer 2022
“My doctor examined me and didn’t find anything wrong. He recommended that I see an eye doctor,” says Aaron. Thankfully, Aaron was able to see an eye doctor rather quickly. Aaron had 20/20 vision, but because of the movement in his vision, the physician recommended Aaron get an MRI. “By now, my wife and I were getting pretty concerned. She works in the medical field and so within a day she had my MRI appointment scheduled,” says Aaron.
Aaron underwent the MRI, and soon after, his family practice doctor called with the results. “He told me I had an AVM,” says Aaron. An arteriovenous malformation, or AVM, is an abnormal short-circuit between arteries and veins that creates a tangle of vessels in the brain or spinal cord. In Aaron’s case these were stealing blood from other parts of the brain, causing his symptoms. AVMs can cause seizures or convulsions or burst and leak blood in and around the brain, which is known as a bleeding stroke. “We were really worried. We knew I needed to see a neurosurgeon so right away, I called our son’s pediatrician
