A woman has explained how crying after a breakup triggered a migraine that led doctors to discover two blood clots in her brain, saying she had unknowingly had a minor stroke the week before and could have die.
Liv, 24, from Texas, shared an abridged version of her shocking story in a now-viral video that has been viewed over 486,000 times on TikTok, where she uses the handle @bake_you_acake.
«I once cried so hard from a broken heart, it gave me a migraine that lasted two weeks and actually gave me a stroke when I was 20,» said- she writes in text on the screen.
Liv, 24, from Texas, explained how crying from a breakup triggered a migraine which led to the discovery that she had two blood clots and suffered a mini-stroke
She shared an abbreviated version of her shocking story in a now-viral video that has been viewed over 486,000 times on TikTok
She explained that no one believed she had suffered a stroke until she passed out and was taken to hospital for a CT scan.
«I had two blood clots in a major vein in my brain, and my doctor told me he was shocked that I didn’t have a major stroke and was dying because of their placement… all [because] a boy didn’t love me back,” she concluded.
Liv clarified in a follow-up video that she ‘didn’t end up in hospital with a broken heart’, saying doctors believe her birth control caused the blood clots and stroke that took place. followed.
«Yes, the crying from the breakup caused the migraine, but they think the blood clot has been going on for a while,» she explained. «I just wasn’t aware.»
Liv clarified in a follow-up video that she ‘didn’t end up in hospital with a broken heart’, saying doctors believe her birth control caused the blood clots and stroke that took place. followed.
«Yes, the crying from the breakup caused the migraine, but they think the blood clot has been going on for a while,» she explained. «I just didn’t know that»
A transient ischemic attack (TIA), often called a mini-stroke, is caused by a temporary blockage of blood flow to the brain.
It differs from a full-blown stroke in that its effects are short-lived. Typically, these blows last a few minutes and leave no permanent damage.
Liv, who was a student at Texas A&M University at the time, recalled that she had «cried so much» after her breakup that her «head started to hurt a lot» and the pain wouldn’t go away.
She went to emergency care and was given painkillers, but that did nothing to relieve her constant migraine.
Another week passed and she was at her friend’s house for dinner when she suddenly felt like everything was in slow motion, like she was under a strobe light.
Liv’s father took her to the emergency room after she nearly passed out, and a CT scan showed she had two blood clots in a major vein in her brain.
The doctor was shocked that she didn’t have a major stroke, and she was immediately taken off birth control and put on blood thinners
«I remember saying, ‘Oh my God, my head is like I’m really killing myself,'» she said.
Liv drove home and suddenly found herself in Bryan, Texas, a small town outside of College Station where her school’s campus is located.
“I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know my name. I had a major panic attack. I freaked out for about two minutes and then I broke down,” she said. “Literally, this whole side of my body felt like it was sagging, but it wasn’t. I looked in the mirror. There was nothing, but it was just heavy, like my cheeks and all.
Liv texted her ex and said she thought she «just had a stroke», but he convinced her she was fine. When she returned home the following week, her doctor gave her medication to treat her migraine, but it still wouldn’t go away.
«I remember I was just crying, like I was sobbing in bed, and my dad came into the bedroom and said, ‘Are you just f**king depressed? «, She explained. ‘And I was like, ‘No, I have a headache.'»
Liv had already missed two weeks of school by this point, and her father told her she had to go back to College Station or she would fail all of her classes.
However, when she came downstairs, she nearly passed out. That’s when he took her to the emergency room, and she learned that she was right about everything.
«The doctor was so flippant,» she said. ‘He was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I know what the problem is. You have two blood clots in your brain from a major vein…you had a minor stroke.
Liv thinks the blood clots and strokes were caused by her birth control, but no one knows for sure.
Estrogen in birth control pills is known to cause blood clots which can lead to stroke, and women who take oral contraceptives are twice as likely suffer from a stroke than their non-taking counterparts.
However, it is important to note that the population size is already so small that a doubled risk does not mean the risk is high, especially in women without other risk factors such as cigarette addiction and a history of hypertension.
“It was all weird. They still have no idea what caused it,” Liv explained. “They put me on blood thinners – shouts Xarelto – and after that I literally didn’t have migraines. So they think it could have happened all my life, and I had no idea.
Liv said the «crazy» thing was that she took birth control when she was 15 to stop her migraines, but the oral contraceptive only made it worse.
She added that she was supposed to have surgery to remove the blood clots, which became much smaller thanks to blood thinners, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
«So I’m still trying to figure that out,» she said.