AVM Alliance: A Pediatric Stroke Page

11/26/2025

Our Stuffy Project Wrapped Up With SO Much Love

Sometimes a small plush carries a big message: You’re not alone. Someone is thinking of you. Your courage matters.

This year, our Stuffy Project did exactly that — and then some.

✨ What We Achieved Together

More than 150 Stuffies made their way to:
• Texas Children’s Hospital – Houston
• Texas Children’s Hospital – Austin
• The Pediatric Stroke Clinic in Houston
• And families all across the United States, from first-time diagnoses to long-term warriors who needed a little extra comfort this season.

Each Stuffy was paired with love, hope, and the gentle reminder that childhood stroke and brain vessel disease don’t get to take away the magic of being a kid.

💛 From Our Community to Theirs

These Stuffies didn’t appear out of thin air.
They came from:
• Parents who know the fear of waiting rooms
• Siblings who understand the chaos of medical life
• Friends who want to make sure no child faces stroke or AVM journey alone
• Supporters who simply believe in kindness

🙏 Thank You

Whether you donated a plush, shipped a box, spread the word, or cheered us on — you made this happen.
Your generosity helped turn a difficult season into a softer one for so many families. PetSmart

Our beloved butterfly pig mascot will be hitching a ride on every Project Stuffy shipment, reminding each child that a whole community is in their corner.
www.avmalliance.org
AVM Alliance: Stroke Has No Age Limit™

11/21/2025

There are things you don’t learn until you’re already in the deep end.
Things that should have been said sooner.
Things that would have changed the way you breathed through those first terrifying days.
Here are the truths every parent deserves to hear before they’re drowning in paperwork and fear:

You’re allowed to ask for every report, scan, and summary — they belong to you.

You’re allowed to say, “I don’t understand. Please explain it again.”

You don’t have to carry the entire care plan alone.

And your fear doesn’t cancel out your strength — they often show up together.

If you’re early in this journey, you’re not behind.
You’re not failing.
You’re learning a language no parent ever thought they’d need.

AVM Alliance stands with you — in the questions, the binders, the tears, and the tiny victories you fight for every day.
www.avmalliance.org
AVM Alliance: Stroke Has No Age Limit™
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11/20/2025

When a child has a stroke or AVM rupture, families are suddenly thrown into a world they never expected to navigate — specialists they’ve never heard of, decisions they don’t feel prepared to make, and a terrifying sense of “What do we do next?”

That’s where AVM Alliance steps in.

When Evan’s family reached out, they were searching for answers with urgency and fear every parent can understand.
We didn’t provide the therapy, and we didn’t run the study —
but we did what we do best:
we helped connect them with the right specialists at the right time.

Because sometimes the most life-changing support isn’t a treatment.
It’s a clear path.
It’s someone saying, “Here’s the next step. You’re not alone in this.”

Today, Evan is making incredible strides through virtual-reality rehab at UTHealth Houston, and his journey is featured in their news. His story is one of resilience, innovation, and a family who refused to give up — and we are honored to have played a small role in helping them find the right door to knock on. Evan -- We are SO Proud of how hard you have worked and how much you have overcome!

If you’re a parent, caregiver, or survivor feeling lost in the maze of brain vessel disease, please know:
You don’t have to navigate this alone.
We’re here to help you understand your options, connect with experienced medical teams, and make informed, empowered decisions in the middle of the storm.

AVM Alliance — bringing clarity, community, and compassion to families facing the hardest moments of their lives.
www.avmalliance.org

Evan Cadena was 19 years old when he suffered an ischemic stroke in May 2023. It was the third time a stroke caused him to lose mobility in the right side of his body since he was 16, when doctors in the Rio Grande Valley found an arteriovenous malformation, or AVM, in his brain.

11/18/2025

Your child is not their diagnosis.
Not their challenges.
Not their hardest days.

They are still the same child you love —
the one with a spark, a story, and a soul far bigger than any chart or label could ever hold.

A diagnosis may shape the journey,
but it does not define who they are.
And it never will.

You’re doing an incredible job, even on the days it doesn’t feel like it.
www.avmalliance.org
AVM Alliance -- Stroke Has No Age Limit™

11/17/2025

Healing isn’t loud.
Most days look ordinary…
until you realize how far you’ve come.
The world celebrates the big milestones — the victories you can photograph.
But you see the quiet ones: the extra step, the calmer evening, the brave moment your child didn’t even know was brave.
And those little moments?
They count more than anyone realizes.

🧡 Your child is growing in ways the world can’t measure.
🧡 The small steps are the big steps.
AVM Alliance -- Stroke Has No Age Limit™ -- www.avmalliance.org

11/16/2025

Some nights, it’s not the big medical updates that weigh the most.
It’s the tiny things nobody else sees:
the meds you triple-checked
the seizure worries you deal with
the bedtime routine that now involves courage you never asked to have
the fear you swallowed so your child wouldn’t see it
the hope you held onto even when today was hard

You are not alone in this.
🧡 We walk this with you — one breath, one night, one next step at a time.

AVM Alliance -- Stroke Has No Age Limit™
www.avmalliance.org

11/13/2025

You can’t pour from an empty cup.
Rest isn’t selfish — it’s how you refill your strength for tomorrow’s storms and small victories.
Breathe. Rest. You matter too.
🦋 AVM Alliance – Stroke Has No Age Limit™ -- www.avmalliance.org

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11/12/2025

Tomorrow will ask for courage —
but tonight, let hope whisper louder than fear.

Because courage doesn’t always roar —
sometimes it’s just the decision to keep hoping.

Healing takes time, patience, and rest.
You’re doing better than you think.

🦋 AVM Alliance – Stroke Has No Age Limit™ -- www.avmalliance.org

11/11/2025

Somewhere out there tonight, another parent is holding their breath through the same storm.
You’re not alone in this.
Every story matters.

www.avmalliance.org
🦋 AVM Alliance – Stroke Has No Age Limit™

11/10/2025

💪 From Collapse to Comeback: U.S. Space Force Officer’s Fight to Rebuild His Life After an AVM Rupture

When a brain AVM ruptures, life can change in an instant — for a child, a parent, or even a military officer serving his country.

This week, the Hillsboro News-Times shared the story of Space Force Officer Dallas Ransom, whose sudden AVM rupture left him fighting for his life — and then fighting to recover every part of it. Through surgeries, setbacks, and extraordinary determination, Dallas has become a voice of strength and hope for others living with brain vessel disease.

At AVM Alliance, we honor stories like his because they remind every survivor and family that recovery is possible at any age — and that no one should have to navigate it alone. 💜

AVM Alliance -- Stroke Has No Age Limit™

(HILLSBORO) — Since the moment he collapsed, Dallas Ransom has been fighting to rebuild what he lost, find light in the hardest times and help others uncover hope in their own recovery. Ransom was stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, as a newly activated officer in the U.S. ...

11/10/2025

You’ve spent the whole day holding everyone else together — juggling appointments, soothing fears, managing medications — and somehow, you still think you’re not doing enough.

But love keeps you showing up, even when you’re running on empty.
We see your strength. We see you.

🦋 AVM Alliance – Stroke Has No Age Limit™

11/09/2025

November is for the caregivers.
The ones who hold the line when life changes in an instant.

To every parent, sibling, and friend who shows up through love, loss, and everything in between — we see you.
You’ve learned to speak the language of medicine, to advocate, to adapt, and to hold hope when answers don’t come.

Some of you sit beside hospital beds tonight.
Others carry your child’s love forward in every act of remembrance.

Wherever you are on this road — your courage, tenderness, and devotion matter more than words can say. 🦋

💛 AVM Alliance honors every caregiver walking beside a brain vessel disease Warrior — past and present. www.avmalliance.org