Somerset, Kentucky, resident Joyce Sears had a terrible headache she thought was a combination of a sinus infection and having flown recently. Turns out she had a massive blot clot in her brain.

Joyce tells her own story as part of an ongoing series of UK HealthCare patients discussing their personal health-related dramas.

Transcript:
So I laid in bed basically the next three days. On Sunday, I told my husband I felt like my head was going to fall off and people was going to use it for a bowling ball as a joke. Because the pressure was that bad.

My kids found me unresponsive Sunday night. Their daddy was out of town for work. And I went to the ER in Somerset, Kentucky. And they did a CAT scan and found out I had a blood clot in my head. They sent me up to UK.

He said when I first got to UK, they shaved my head. And they drilled some holes to relieve the pressure because there was pressure in my brain and my brain was starting to swell and then later that night removed the middle of the blood clot. The blood clot started right in here and it went up and around and through the middle of my head to my brainstem. He said if you laid it all out, it would be over 10 inches of complete blockage.

Well, when I woke up, no one was really talking actually. I was convinced I got in a car wreck because I had IVs in both arms and I was very sore. And nobody was telling me what happened. So I was 100% convinced I got in a car wreck.

I went in the hospital October 22nd. And I got out October the 30th. The doctor that actually discharged me and said I was a miracle and he wasn't going to stand in the way of a miracle by keeping me there. I do know I was under good care the whole time I was there and they are excellent doctors.