Anjane’t Clayter has proven her resilience more than once in her lifetime. She served for six years in Afghanistan, but it is her medical history that has proven to be the biggest fight of her life.
As a sophomore at Kendrick High School, she began suffering headaches. She went to a neurologist who diagnosed her with migraines. She was given medication that toned them down a bit. After moving to Missouri with her cousin, she had a seizure.
“The doctors there found I had an arteriovenous malformation (AVM). It’s an abnormal tangle of blood vessels that connect arteries directly to veins, skipping the tiny vessels called capillaries. At the time it was small, but I had to have MRIs every year,” explained Clayter.
How an AVM Works
- Arteries carry oxygen-rich blood away from your heart.
- Veins bring oxygen-poor blood back to your heart.
- Capillaries normally slow blood down and pass oxygen to your tissues.
- An AVM skips the capillaries, forcing high-pressure blood straight from arteries into weak veins.
AVMs are rare, less than 1% of people are diagnosed, which usually doesn’t occur unless you have symptoms such as Anjane’t has experienced…