Drake White Reveals Brain Condition After Near Collapse Onstage

Drake White has revealed that he suffers from a debilitating brain condition called arteriovenous malformation (AVM), something I had never heard of until I was diagnosed with it 6 years ago.

Drake revealed his diagnosis just days after nearly collapsing onstage during a concert performance and being hospitalized.

The incident happened in the middle of his performance at Elmwood Park in Roanoke, Va., on Friday August 16th when he started to feel light-headed, lost all energy and could not stand up.

Drake later apologized to fans on Twitter saying

Drake opened up to People magazine revealing that he has been battling this rare brain condition called an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), which is a tangle of abnormal and poorly formed blood vessels. According to the Mayo Clinic, “The arteries are responsible for taking oxygen-rich blood from the heart to the brain. Veins carry the oxygen-depleted blood back to the lungs and heart. A brain AVM disrupts this vital process.”

Drake tells People:

“It was basically stealing blood from my brain. The neurologist told me that I should be thankful it was caught in time, because it could have caused a stroke.”

He has undergone eight months of treatment and told PEOPLE that his doctor is confident that they have “knocked out 75% of the mass.”

Less than 1% of the population will be diagnosed with AVM and I was one of them 6 years ago.  I was in excruciating pain with the worse headache I’ve ever had in my life.  My husband took me to the ER and I actually sat outside in the car debating whether to go in because I felt “silly” going to the ER for a headache. He eventually convinced me to go in where they began with CT scan.

The doctor came and revealed that they saw a mass and I would need to get another scan.  He left and we were in shock.  A mass in my brain???  Luckily my  husband diffused the tension joking “oh it’s just the monitoring chip I implanted in your brain years ago.”  We laughed and then went back to anxiously waiting.

In the end we got no answers at the ER but during my follow up with a neurologist he explained that the mass was AVM and that at this point it was harmless.  It wasn’t actually the cause of my pain (that turned out to be an infected tooth with pain radiating into my head- weird.)  So basically if I didn’t need a root canal they would have never found the AVM until I started showing the symptoms that Drake White experienced.  For the past 5 years, I’ve had MRIs to monitor the mass and make sure it doesn’t change or grow (it hasn’t) and if I remain symptom free than I will just continue to live with the mass.

I honestly forget about it sometimes until I saw the news this morning about Drake and remembered how much we take for granted.  I get to wake up every day and come to work and do a job I love so much. I get to come home to a wonderful husband and my fur-babies know I am truly blessed.

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