I know pretty well why I had a stroke, but I realised today that it’s not actually very clear on the website, so here it is. There were a number of factors involved.
1. I was on the oral contraceptive pill, and the hormone in that increases the chances of your blood clotting.
2. I had just had surgery, and after surgery, your body goes into clot mode because that’s the natural response to trauma.
3. The reason I had surgery was because I had Cushing’s Disease, and one of the side-effects of Cushing’s is excess steroids in your body and high blood pressure.
4. I had a lumbar drain put in three days after the surgery, and that also increases risk of stroke.
All those factors combined caused a clot to form in the vein at the back of my brain (which is why it’s called a venous sinus thrombosis). That clot meant the blood wasn’t getting out of my brain fast enough, and the build up of pressure caused a bleed in the right side of the brain.
It’s pretty amazing, how bodies work.
