Emmy

I'm now 27 years old with the opportunity to share my story on how I became a stroke survivor. So here it goes...

I was 23 years old at the time, pregnant with my second child - a little girl. Healthy pregnancy, all going well until I was 25 weeks pregnant. I remember waking late in the night with a severe headache, describing as thunder clapping. It was pounding... I took pain relief and continued with the next few days, thinking this is just a stress headache of some sort. Still not being able to shift it, I had made Dr appointments which resulted in waiting days for an appointment. It got to day 13 with this headache get worse and worse... im now 27 weeks pregnant, I was referred into the maternity ward where they tested my blood pressure reguarly for preclampsia... turned out my readings were normal... the midwives laughed and sniggered under there noses when I rang the buzzer  constantly needing pain relief for a "headache" (I was on morphine and codeine at this point). Being pregnant they were apprehensive to send me in for an MRI scan on my head, but agreed and I soon went down straight away. Shortly after, about 30 minutes after having the scan I soon had drs come to my bed in the ward explaining to me about a blood clot in my head and immediately rushed me to another ward in the same hospital (I didn't really know what was going on at this moment in time)... I was so confused, my mum and partner by my side supporting me during the transfer... I remember arriving at the ward and there was a number of elderly people, it was so quiet - but peaceful. I remember my mum asking why I was here in this ward, for the nurse to turn around and say "didn't the drs tell you? You've had a stroke? This is the stroke ward"... then it sunk in!! I was strapped to monitors and for the next 2 days I had drs shining torches in my eyes what felt like every hour, medication handed to me every 4 hours, 80mg clexane injections into my pregnant tummy every day from then. The drs showed me my head scans, I had 2 large clots on the right side of my brain near my temple, and 1 clot in my neck. I was in hospital for 2 weeks, going through rehabilitation to walk, balance, climb, and train my left side to gain the strength that was just getting weaker by the days during this awful month, especially in my left hand, fingers and arm. Finally, I got there... I had my daughter prematurely at 33 weeks, and life went on.... not quite as normal as I'd like it to of been, my memory was awful, I had to live back at home with my partner and my mum who helped me gain my confidence, helped with my memory and made me feel safe and comforted during this stressful time... I finally got better over the years, and I'm the happiest and most proudest I've ever been with myself. Like I said, I'm 27 years old now, and I'm self-employed, I have two beautiful children, a loving partner and a happy home. I'm lucky to be alive today to tell my tale of becoming a stroke survivor! 💜