‘HANGOVER’ WAS REALLY A STROKE
WHEN student Nia Phillips felt a headache coming on one Friday in autumn 2019 she had no idea it was the start of her life changing forever. Seeking medical advice early on the then 20-year-old student from Ammanford was told the pain in her head was probably the result of a hangover.
But days later doctors discovered she was experiencing a life-threatening stroke likely to be caused by her contraceptive pill.
Two years on from her traumatic ordeal, Nia said she was slowly coming to terms with what happened and is now more determined than ever to follow her dreams.
“I felt like I had a headache on the Friday but it wasn’t bad. Then I woke up on the Saturday and it was definitely a migraine,” said Nia, now 22.
“I was vomiting, I had blurred vision, I was seriously light sensitive to the point where I had to have closed curtains and an eye mask on.”
It was a day when the psychology student should have been enjoying herself at her third-year fresher’s ball at Royal Holloway University, Surrey. Instead she was bedbound and could hardly lift her head from her pillow.
Her worried mum came up to Surrey to help her and the pair decided to make their way back home to Carmarthenshire on the Friday so Nia could get better in the comfort of her own home.
“When we got home I saw a nurse who thought it was an ear infection as she could see swelling behind my ear but because my eyes were still so painful my mother suggested we saw an optician.
The optician was a family friend and we were so lucky that she could fit us in last-minute.”
Nia said it was only then that something far more sinister was discovered – and it was caught just in the nick of time.
“The optician noticed some swelling in my brain and sent me straight to Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen to be seen out of hours. I will always be so thankful to her because if it wasn’t pointed out then who knows what would have happened?” she said.
Nia was admitted to hospital that night and had an MRI scan and ultrasound of her eyeball the next morning.
“They came back and said: ‘After seeing your MRI scan we can see a blood clot on the brain.’ They instantly injected me with heparin to thin my blood as soon as possible,” she said.
Following her diagnosis, Nia stayed at Glangwili Hospital for two more weeks and said she was so thankful that the nurses helped her feel as comfortable as possible in the room.
After she was discharged she had regular ophthalmology appointments to check her eyesight and pressure behind the eyes and in the brain.
Tests were run to try to determine the cause of her blood clot – the result of which really surprised Nia.
“They told me that according to the tests I didn’t have a genetic predisposition to blood clots. There was also no known family history of it and I was a healthy 20-year-old.
“I was told that doctors would never be able to explain 100% for certain why I had the blood clot but the most likely cause was my contraceptive pill.
“I went on the (combined) pill Rigevidon in 2017 at the age of 18 and I never had any previous issues with it. I didn’t suffer from migraines or bad headaches.”
According to the NHS website, Rigevidon is one of the more popular types of contraceptive and is safe for most women.
It states that there is a “very low risk of serious side effects” such as blood clots and that women should be fine to take it unless they are suffering with or have a close family history of certain conditions.
These can include blood clots, high blood pressure, heart abnormalities and migraines – especially ones with auras.
Even though Nia was not identified as being high risk she believes a better understanding of the possible side effects of taking the pill would have led her to make a more informed choice.
Nia said it took her a while to adjust back to new version of normality after leaving hospital and said in a way lockdown helped her to catch up with her peers.
Because of the time she spent out of university Nia deferred her psychology degree for one year and instead reenrolled to do her third year at Cardiff University to be a bit closer to home, starting it in autumn 2020.