I had my daughter on September 27, 2021. About the 4th day after, I started getting a headache. One nurse said it was because I am a tired new mom. Then a different nurse said I should not ignore headaches.
My delivery was very traumatic. I lost over 1000ML of blood and passed out during labor. My daughter and I both had heart rate drops quickly. They did an emergency C-section that I felt even though I had an epidural — it wore off. They immediately put me under after I screamed and could feel them open me up and take her out! My placenta ruptured into many pieces.
After about 2 weeks, I had a migraine that wouldn’t quit. Nothing was touching it. One morning it got so bad that all I could do was scream — it felt like someone was hitting me on the side of the head with a hammer. My friend drove me and my daughter to the nearest urgent care. She told them everything I had been through during delivery and specifically asked them to do imaging to make sure I didn’t have an aneurysm. I was still crying in so much pain I could hardly talk. The doctors told me I had a “classic migraine” and gave me the cocktail for migraines — even though I told them I had never had migraines before and had just gone through a traumatic delivery. Zero imaging was done before I was released 2.5 hours later.
About a week and a half later, when I got up around 4am to feed my daughter, I was very nauseous. I started throwing up and felt tingling in my left arm. I knew that was not good. I drove my daughter and I back to the hospital where she was delivered. The ER doctor said we should do some imaging, since migraines are not normal. He came back and told me I had complete obstruction of the center sinus. I was immediately started on a heparin drip. My friend came and got my daughter and I was taken to the Neuro ICU and transported by ambulance to another medical center.
Right before I was transported, a doctor came in and said that the other hospital had told them to start me on enoxaparin shots —They believed I had brain hemorrhaging on the right side, in addition to the center sinus clot. She asked if there was anyone I would like to call and the nurse said that if anything were to happen, they wanted me to be at the best place.
In the Neuro ICU, I was set to have surgery for the center sinus clot. Neurologists concluded I had a cluster of clots on the right side of my brain. Fortunately, my center sinus clot had shrunk enough that they did not have to do surgery. I was released 4 days later.
All hereditary blood tests came back negative. Doctors figured it was due to my age and the C-section. I was put on dabigatran for 6 months, then stayed on baby aspirin.
I moved out of state for a job and started getting headaches again. A neurologist ordered imaging and referred me to a hematologist. When they saw the Magnetic Resonance Venography they put me on apixaban. After a couple of weeks I started getting nausea again and had to pull over to throw up. I went to the ER. The doctor came in and said the clots were progressing and I now had a new one in my left sinus. I was started immediately on a heparin drip, then enoxaparin shots — all about a year after the initial incident. The doctor said he had never seen someone where apixaban had failed. I was switched to warfarin. It took six weeks to reach a therapeutic range. I will be on warfarin for life, as it was the medication that stabilized everything.
All of the clots are still there but hardened. Blood flow on the right side of my brain down to the right jugular is still there but minimal. Luckily the body finds other ways to create blood flow.
I try to get my story out there as much as possible — please trust your gut! No one knows your body as well as you do. Know your risks and get a simple blood test to see if you are prone to clots. I listened to my body and insisted that something was wrong. I would not be here today if I had not gone back to the hospital where I had my daughter — knowing that the tingling and vomiting were not good, even when another doctor said it was just a migraine.
