I was 33 and woke up from a deep sleep with a horrific headache. I waited for it to pass… but what happened to my eyes the next day changed my life forever

Sarah Miles was 33 years old and six months postpartum when she felt a headache coming on in the middle of the night.

It was bad; it woke her up from a deep sleep and it felt like pins and needles were pressing into every inch of her skull.

The young mother of four eventually fell asleep again, but she told FEMAIL she was terrified when she woke up a few hours later to find her peripheral vision had completely disappeared.

‘I don’t normally have a headache, and when I do, I never take anything for it. I’m just waiting for the storm to pass,” she recalled.

‘But this was different. It didn’t feel good, I was in much more pain than normal. A thousand needles pierced my entire skull.”

Sarah admitted she never realized she might have had a stroke. She initially refused to believe it when doctors confirmed her condition.

“My peripheral (vision) was blank. It was black, I couldn’t see anything. But I just brushed it off and thought it was because I was tired.

‘I had a new baby, a lot of crazy things happened at that time.

‘I rubbed my eyes thinking they would return to normal, but I went to my husband when they didn’t.

‘He was working from home and started looking things up on Google saying I might be having a stroke. “I remember laughing about that despite everything,” she said.

She had no other symptoms other than the headache and vision problems.

The doctor thought she might have a migraine and referred her to an optometrist.

‘He did all the usual tests on me, which seemed fine, but after the visual field test everything changed.

“It doesn’t look good,” the doctor had told Sarah. “It’s likely you’re having a stroke.”

She was shocked that her husband’s frantic Googling that she was having a stroke actually turned out to be true.

Sarah quickly arranged for her mother to care for her children and went to the hospital where she stayed for four nights, where doctors performed endless tests to investigate the cause of the clot.

On the final day, it was revealed that the clot formed in an artery in the back of her neck. It had traveled to her occipital lobe and caused vision loss.

At the time, Sarah had been suffering from high blood pressure for years, a condition that made the clot worse.

“I was grateful I didn’t need surgery,” she said. ‘The doctors were confident the medicine would dissolve the clot… but those first days were torture.

‘I had a six-month-old baby at home and three other children to worry about. My oldest was barely 11. It was terrifying! One minute I was doing well, and the next minute I was in the hospital for an MRI and CT scan.

‘I couldn’t have visitors, so I was all alone. Because my eyesight had disappeared, it was difficult for me to move. I had to stay in bed all the time, I was only allowed to get up and go to the toilet.’

Sarah continued, “I was only 33. I had young children, I was a stay-at-home mom. What would happen to them? Would I be in the picture in the future?

‘Will I ever be able to drive again? Will I get my independence back?

‘I had so many questions and no answers. Nothing has ever been so heartbreaking and hopeless.”

Sarah’s only experience with strokes was leaving people paralyzed and bedridden. She was afraid the same thing would happen to her.

“I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to feed myself, that I wouldn’t be able to talk, that I would keep having strokes until one of them killed me.”

She didn’t get much reassurance from the medical team at the time because no one wanted to give her false hope.

Extraordinary recovery

When Sarah came home from the hospital, she put her recovery on hold and became a full-time mother again.

‘There was so much to sort out – I had to figure out how to get my kids to school because I couldn’t drive, we were in the middle of the second Victorian lockdown, there was just so much going on with the little ones.

“It’s hard to put yourself first when you have four kids counting on you. But I think I welcomed the work because I was still in denial.

‘I couldn’t believe I had just been discharged and was home. I was sure a doctor had missed something. Life couldn’t be normal again, except for a few pills you had to take every day.’

Every headache and eye twitch made her anxious.

‘My first put me at risk of another stroke, so I was always on edge. I think I tried for 12 months not to let it consume me. I was always worried.

“But I tried to move on a little bit after the first year and tell myself whatever happens, will happen. I have to live my life and deal with the loss.”

Sarah was on medication for a year and returned to the hospital every four months for an MRI.

“I never got all of my peripheral vision back,” says Sarah, now 37. “The doctors told me that the healing will happen between the first few weeks – and then things will be more permanent.

‘I have a permanent blind spot on my right side, which is challenging to navigate.

‘Even going to the supermarket is tiring. I can’t see it, so people kept coming up behind me and scaring me. I have to be extra careful not to bump into people or stumble, I have to turn my head completely to check for obstacles.

‘There are other lasting effects of the stroke: fatigue, brain fog, sensory overload. Loud noises and large crowds trigger me, as do bright lights.’

Sarah also suffers from cognitive fatigue due to the brain fog, and revealed that it takes a lot of effort to remind herself that she wasn’t stupid because she forgot words and phrases.

‘I had lost myself in a way and I had to relearn a lot of things. I just didn’t have the same capacity anymore because my brain was healing, which was hard to deal with.”

Although the mother of four was previously in charge of most family events, such as birthdays and Christmas, she had to take a step back to avoid putting additional strain on her healing.

“It really showed me who really cared about me and just wanted me to have an easy time.”

However, Sarah’s children were a bright light in the darkness.

‘My boys are very independent, we never wrapped them in bubble wrap growing up. They knew what happened to me and did their best to help while I recovered.

‘They knew my medication times and brought my pills, they never made any problems and always listened because they wanted to make it easier for me.

‘I am so grateful for my husband and children, they really helped me through such a difficult time in my life.’

Sarah now feels like she has a new lease on life.

She reevaluated everything in her life and strived to always put her best foot forward – starting with seizing every opportunity that came her way.

Sarah always wanted to play football, but could never make time for it until she recovered from her stroke.

She stepped outside her comfort zone and joined a community team, played several matches and won an award for her efforts.

‘I probably wouldn’t be as fit and healthy as I am now, I wouldn’t be playing football if I hadn’t had a stroke at 33.

“I take so much better care of myself, and I certainly don’t wipe anything away. If something doesn’t feel right, I’ll take a look at it straight away.’