I was a normal 25 year old working a full-time job at an equestrian barn. Barn manager, rode horses, was on my feet eight hours a day. Leading up to actually the day before having a stroke, I was clocked in at 200, 20,000 steps a day. Think I averaged about 15,000 steps a day. And then that immediately went down to zero – the day of my stroke.

I remember waking up and everything seemed normal until I started noticing my vision kind of started to go in and out. And then all of a sudden it was like I couldn’t see at all.

The coordination between what my mind and what my body wanted to do was nonexistent. There was no connection between my mind and hand or leg coordination. It was a complete disconnect.

It was actually one of my friends, Lilly, who I had called and said, hey, you know, I’m not really feeling right and I can’t really see. But I’m just going to wait till later today and I think it’ll be fine. And she immediately said, no, I’m taking you to urgent care. And we’re just going to have you checked out.

Multiple people did neurological tests on me and that’s when they, they, my symptoms were minor that they weren’t sure if I was having a stroke. But they immediately said, , we think you should go by ambulance to the hospital. And I was kind of like, ah, what, you know, at that point I was still like, you’re, what are you talking about? You know, I still was in disbelief that this, at 25, could not be happening. Even as it was happening, I did not believe that I was having a stroke.

So after being transferred from urgent care to another hospital, I was, my family was (stumbles) a family friend recommended Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Dr. Zipfel specifically, for the issue that I was having. And he came highly recommended. And my parents wanted me to be transferred to (stumble) Barnes-Jewish Hospital because of their outstanding reputation and just what the amazing things that we’ve always known and living in St. Louis and knowing about their reputation.

Miss Owings I first met when she was transferred from an outside hospital to Barnes-Jewish Hospital for evaluation of an intracerebral hemorrhage. She was evaluated in an outside hospital and there was some difficulty trying to come to a true diagnosis of why she was confused.

And we found that this young woman who had had a hemorrhagic stroke, a bleeding type of stroke, the cause of that was what’s called an arteriovenous malformation or AVM. And that’s a congenital blood vessel problem, meaning she was born with that blood vessel problem.

I do remember wheeled into the, the Barnes ICU and it was like, I was like surrounded by, you know, the, everyone in blue. And it was like you just immediately felt like you were surrounded by people that were going to take care of you, and that feeling is like, you just, you put your life in their hands.

The first time I met Dr. Zipfel laying there at, not, I just remember like a tall shadow over me and he was saying, you know, we’re going to take you in and he was explaining things to me, his personality and his, his warmth and his, really his genuine character was so calming, that I don’t even think that, like looking back on it, there was never a point when I was there that I felt scared. There’s something about his demeanor that was, is so amazing with patients and that, you know, and that kind of went across the board with me with him to all the nurses. Everything was this above excellence care and attention and where you just always felt like everything was just going to be OK.

So after a discussion with her and her family, we recommended surgery to remove that AVM. And that’s a type of surgery done where we make an opening in the skin and skull, use special guidance to get to right where this AVM is, and then we physically remove it with an operating microscope and we evacuate or remove the blood clot that it had caused.

And that surgery went very well.

The first day being wheeled in there. And as much as I hated it at the time, you know, like what am I doing here? But I also had to be transported there in a wheelchair, because I couldn’t walk. So that kind of feeling is, you have to let go. Like going into rehab, it’s there to help you, it’s there to help you recover, it’s there to help you get back to what your life was like before you have your life-changing event.

I spent a week there and they, and I fought so hard to get out of there faster. And I tried to get out of there in three days. They kept telling me no. But that’s what they are, were there for and they helped immensely. And you know, people want, people want, either want to get better or they don’t. And I thought that my speech therapist, my occupational therapist and my physical therapists were all there to ensure that no matter what, I did not give up.

So life now, I’m finally back to working full-time, which is really great. It took me a little bit to get there, but that’s kind of the stroke recovery outline, as recovering from, from any major life event.

So I think that’s what I remember most about Christa, is her own personality, energy, optimism and her family that surrounded her with love and compassion and really wanting what’s best for her. And I think in part, that’s what led to her being transferred down to our hospital. And in later follow-up, Christa’s doing very, very well.