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2016 Home For the Holidays
LINCOLN DAILY NEWS November 23, 2016 Page 19
leaning towards just doing one
procedure: to remove the mass
(AVM) entirely instead of trying
to embolize (“freeze”) it first.
This way they can close off her
extra arteries and know for sure
that the mass won’t grow back.”
In January
2016, the Hoinacki’s received
unexpected good news just three
days before scheduled surgery.
On his blog, Ethan posted,
“The doctors are in shock. Our
little Sadie, though she may
not realize it, has experienced a
miracle. In order to get a more
updated visual Dr. Lautz, Sadie’s
surgeon, ordered a CT scan today
before her scheduled surgery on
Monday, only to find that her
AVM has shrunk significantly.
Sadie’s once massive AVM
consuming one-third of her little
liver has SHRUNK to consuming
a mere 5 percent!”
The doctor called it the best
news possible. He cancelled
surgery and sent them home
that day. Ethan said, “Sadie’s
situation was already rare; now she’s redefining
what the medical field knows about AVMs. AVMs
were previously believed to never go away on
their own. Dr. Lautz said medical experts used
to believe that AVMs and hemangiomas were
completely different, but are now realizing they
share many of the same properties and might in
fact be the same thing.”
An ultrasound in July of this year showed the
mass was completely gone. The doctor said to
stop worrying about it because if you did not
know what you were looking for, you would not
even know the mass had been there.
This August, Sadie turned one-year-old and Ethan
wrote a letter to Sadie on the blog about her first
year. He said, “You are a miracle. We know that
all life is a miracle, but how God has healed you
this past year is truly a miracle! I’ll never forget
Dr. Lautz’s excitement when he shared with us
that your AVM was disappearing. Your miracle is
one we will hold onto forever, one that will keep
us close to God when we go through challenging
times in the future.”
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