By Renee Worthing
Register Reporter
   Ricky Arsenault is a familiar face around town. Part of the reason he’s familiar is because he has lived in Sanford nearly his entire life. What also makes him recognizable is a birthmark that has encroached on much of the right side of his face.
   But, Arsenault is hoping to undergo surgery soon that will restore his facial features. However, his desire to have surgery isn’t due to vanity. Recently, he suffered an ulceration of the birthmark called an arterio-venous malformation (AVM).
   “I don’t even take aspirin,” he said, but the pain was so intense, he was forced to take prescribed pain medication for a month.
   “I don’t want to feel pain like that again,” he said.
   In his office in the basement of his uncle’s house, Arsenault waved his hand toward the pile of papers on the desk.
   “Excuse the mess,” he said, although his desk appeared orderly.
   As he told his story, he withdrew a file folder, the inside of which was covered with meticulously handwritten notations. They are records of conversations he has had with doctors, foundations and other organizations he has contacted regarding the removal of the AVM.
   Born in 1958 with a birthmark on the right side of his face, Arsenault’s life hasn’t been easy, but he said it is his faith in God that keeps him strong.
   “He is in control,” Arsenault says.
   In making a decision to have surgery several years ago, he said he prayed for guidance.
   “The time wasn’t right,” he said. But, after the recent ulceration that resulted in excruciating pain, Arsenault said he began to reconsider surgery.
   When Arsenault was a very young child, his father was sent to Vietnam. Arsenault and his older brothers went to live with their grandparents until their grandmother died. When the state learned three boys were living with an elderly man whom the state deemed unable to care for the young boys, Arsenault and one of his brothers was sent to an orphanage while the oldest brother stayed with the grandfather.
   While at the orphanage, Arsenault took a tumble off his bicycle. He suffered a minor injury– the same that many little boys suffer– a fat lip. However, he said, the swelling wouldn’t go down.
   Arsenault’s father was summonsed from his duty station in Vietnam to tend to his injured son. He took his son to a military hospital where doctors said the birthmark had complicated the healing process and there was nothing they could do.
   When he was 8-years-old, his aunt and uncle took the two brothers in to live with them in Sanford where Arsenault attended Sanford Junior High School. During his junior high school years, he developed a small bloody growth behind his teeth on the roof of his mouth, but a simple surgery removed it without any complications, he said.
   Throughout his high school years, he participated in wrestling, football and track while he dreamed of someday flying airplanes.
   Following his 1976 graduation from Sanford High School, he wanted to enlist in the Air Force, but because of the birthmark, the Air Force wouldn’t allow him to take the physical test needed to enlist.
  After a recruiter fought for nine months to allow Arsenault to enlist, he joined the Marine Corps instead.
   He said he tried to become a pilot, but was told he didn’t meet regulations due to asthetics.
   When he became discouraged, he wrote a letter to his high school wrestling coach, Keith Kalman.
   “He wrote back and said, ‘If people don’t like you for who you are, they aren’t worth the time.’ That really stuck with me,” Arsenault said.
   He was given a choice of duty stations and decided to stay in California where he hoped to have cosmetic surgery at Balboa Naval Hospital.
   “If the surgery was successful, I was told I could apply to enter into Annapolis and become an officer in the Marine Corps,” he said.
   His dream of becoming a pilot spurred him to have the surgery, but he was misdiagnosed with a vascular hemangioma instead.
   The misdiagnosis meant the surgery did not go as well as hoped, resulting in a long and painful recovery.
   He said his lip remained larger than before the surgery and very “unstable”. He later developed a staph infection in the AVM that landed him in the hospital for nearly a month.
   Soon after, he received an honorable discharge under medical conditions. The specification of the military discharge left him without medical benefits.
   He eventually returned to Sanford where he developed spontaneous arterial bleeding.
   “I’d wake up in the middle of the night and my pillow would be soaked with blood,” he said
   He said he bled several times a day and sometimes the bleeding was so severe, he wasn’t able to stop it.
   He said the bleeding was so relentless, he could have “bled out” and died.
   Each hospital he went to, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital, Tufts University and Brigham & Women’s Hospital, offered differing treatments. He decided not to pursue surgery because nobody seemed to have a definitive idea on how to deal with the AVM.
   However, in June, when an ulceration of the AVM caused him so much pain, he began researching the Internet and talking to doctors about removal of the AVM.
   One doctor he had seen many, many years ago told Arsenault AVMs grow and change.
   “He said he was surprised I had not chosen surgery over the years,” he said.
   The AVM is growing and evolving, Arsenault said.
   “Now it’s pulling down on my eye so that my eyelid doesn’t close right. I have to put drops in my eye to keep it moist,” he said.
   His dentist told him it is encroaching on his gums and the roof of his mouth.
   The doctors outlined three options for treatment. The first is called “embolization,” a process in which blockages are placed in the arteries to restrict/redirect the flow of blood. His second choice is partial rebuilding of the tissue. His third option is complete removal of the AVM tissue and would include reconstruction of the tissue from tissue from another part of his body.
   He said, if given the opportunity today, he would elect to have the tissue removed completely.
   However, because he is self-employed, he pays an insurance premium of $599 a month in addition to a $5,000 deductible. He said once he reaches the deductible, many of the costs associated with the surgery are not covered by the insurance.
   He said he anticipates incurring between $10,000 and $20,000 of medical expenses his insurance won’t cover.  
   He said he hopes an organization is interested in helping him.
   “If not, I will just pay what I can on the medical bills until they are paid,” he said.
   In the meantime, he’ll continue to research his condition and possible treatments.
   He said he will continue to have faith in God and live as normally as possible, even when children stare.
   “Kids are honest. They aren’t guarded. Their parents try to hush them and some kids want to touch it. I tell them, ‘I’m still human. It’s OK.’”
 FMI, visit Arsenault’s Web site a www.rickyd.wp or call Arsenault at 324-4332.