Katie Kreider

As some of you know, Katie has been dealing with a rare and serious condition known as an arteriovenous malformation, or AVM, for the past few years. An AVM is an abnormal tangle of blood vessels that make it difficult for blood to flow properly, and can cause severe neurological problems in patients including pain, nerve damage, and even strokes or paralysis in serious cases. We first found hers back in April of 2019, when she suffered a hemorrhage from the AVM in her cervical spine. The bleed caused severe pain and some neurological loss in her left arm and hand. The bleed was considered minor, and since the AVM is located in such a high-risk location, the doctors told us to leave it alone and hope she never bled again. Then, she suffered a second bleed this past February, and we decided to seek out a second opinion. After speaking with several top doctors, we decided to pursue a new treatment at Stanford Medicine, known as the Cyberknife. The technology is non-invasive, and uses targeted radiation to hit the problematic blood vessels, causing them to slowly obliterate and return to normal over the course of a few years. Katie will hopefully be undergoing treatment in a few weeks, and we will start to see its effects in the months and years to come. 


We started this page so we can keep friends and family updated on Katie's journey. We will be posting updates as we progress through treatment. We are hopeful this will be a new beginning for Katie, and we are staying positive that this AVM will soon be a thing of the past!