A 22-year-old college student in Wales had a life-threatening stroke likely caused by her birth control pill – although doctors initially told her she just had a hangover, according to a report.
Nia Phillips, a psychology student from Ammanford, sought medical advice when she felt a headache one day in the fall of 2019, Wales Online reported.
She was told the pain was likely the result of a hangover, but the doctors determined days later that she had actually had a stroke.
“I felt like I had a headache on Friday, but it wasn’t bad. Then I woke up on Saturday and it was definitely a migraine, ”Phillips told the news outlet.
“I vomited, I had blurred vision, I was severely light sensitive to the point where I needed to have curtains and an eye mask on,” she added.
The then 20-year-old planned to go to a ball at Royal Holloway University in Surrey, but could barely lift her head off the pillow.
“The migraines lasted until Sunday and on Sunday evening I thought enough was enough and called the doctor outside office hours. [general practitioner]They told me it’s probably a hangover and I just have to watch my symptoms, ”said Phillips.
“They prescribed me co-codamol (a mixture of painkillers paracetamol and codeine) to relieve the pain,” she said.
Phillips followed the doctor’s advice and rested for the next few days, but the pain persisted, so her mother came to help her get back to her home in Carmarthenshire, the report said.
“We got back on the train and I was so light sensitive that I had to walk through Reading Station with a sleep mask on and my hood on,” she said.
“When we got home I saw a nurse who thought it was an ear infection because she could see swelling behind my ear, but since my eyes were still so painful, my mom suggested we see an optician. The optician was a family friend and we were so lucky she could fit us in at the last minute, ”continued Phillips.
The optician noticed swelling in Phillips’ brain – and immediately sent her to the hospital.
“I’ll always be so grateful to her because if it wasn’t noticed who knows what would have happened?” she said.
“In the hospital I saw a consultant ophthalmologist. He thought it might initially be IIH (idiopathic intracranial hypertension), which is a pressure on the brain that’s not hugely uncommon in my age group, so I was then sent for scans, ”said the student.
That night, Phillips was admitted to hospital, where she had an MRI scan and ultrasound of her eyeball.
‘They came back and said,’ After seeing your MRI scan, we can see a blood clot in the brain. “They immediately injected me with heparin to thin my blood as quickly as possible,” she said.
“I was just completely sedated and it felt a bit like an out-of-body experience,” added Phillips, who spent two weeks at Glangwili Hospital.
After she was discharged, tests were done to find out the cause of her blood clot.
“They told me that, according to the tests, I had no genetic predisposition to blood clots. There was also no family history of this and I was a healthy 20 year old, ”she told Wales Online.
“I was told that doctors could never be 100 percent sure why I had the blood clot, but the most likely cause was my birth control pill,” she said.
“I took the (combination) pill Rigevidon in 2017 at the age of 18 and have never had any problems with it. I don’t have migraines or bad headaches, ”she added.
Phillips said she did not realize that the Pill had minor risks and wished that all teens and young women could be fully informed before choosing their birth control.
Rigevidon, one of the more popular types of contraceptives, is safe for most women, according to the NHS website, which says there is a “very low risk of serious side effects,” such as blood clots.
It says women should take it just fine unless they suffer from or have a close family history of certain medical conditions.
Due to the amount of time she did not attend school, Phillips postponed her studies for a year and re-enrolled at Cardiff University for her third year to be closer to home.
“I’m really lucky to have really supportive friends that I can relax when I see it and really enjoy it, but when I come home after socializing I feel like it’s really taken out of me, when I never have. before. I am very social, ”she said.