05/20/2008- The number one choice of contraceptive use for women 15 to 29-years-old is hormonal birth control. If you've ever read the fine print, there is a small chance of serious side effects.

For a local woman, the combination of the Nuva Ring and a hidden medical condition could have cost her her life.

Lee Ann Heuser remembers the day it happened.

"It really started out, I had been fighting a headache for a couple of days and I thought I was coming down with the flu or something," Lee Ann said. "And I was driving and I had to pull over. It felt like my foot was asleep and I was like okay, I need to make sure my foot wakes back up." Lee Ann does have family members who struggle with migraines.

Her foot did wake up. She even felt good enough to go to a Bradley basketball game.

"I woke up in the middle of the night and my arm was completely numb. It just felt like my right arm wasn't even there," she said. That's when Lee Ann's husband knew something was drastically wrong. When Lee Ann got to the emergency room she started having intense seizures.

"The last thing I remember was when I had my first seizure and I was sitting up in my bed and I just remember my legs going completely numb and I said oh my gosh my legs," Lee Ann said.

The 26-year-old newlywed had a massive stroke.

Just six weeks later, she is still a little weak on her right side, but she is a huge success story. She couldn't use her right side at all immediately after the stroke. Now she can put on her tennis shoes.

"I actually just went for a jog the other day and I only jogged for ten minutes and I was tired, but it felt really good to get back into that physical activity," she said.

She can even put bobby pins in her hair, all thanks to her strong determination, lots of rehab and a little luck.

It's a devastating, catastrophic can be instantaneous disability. Loss of ability to think, judgment planning, motor power, sense, loss of ability to control bodily fluids, it's a devastating kind of thing," said Dr. Tom Szymke of Methodist Medical Center.

Twenty-one percent of people who have a stroke don't survive and many more are permanently disabled.

Lee Ann believes her healthy lifestyle before the stroke is what lead to her dramatic recovery. But she knows now young and healthy does not mean invincible.

"There's no history of stroke in my family. Anything can happen. So you just need to make sure you are taking care of yourself because who knows what the future holds," she said.

Lee Ann found out she has a genetic condition that predisposes her to blood clots.

She was also on hormonal birth control, blood clots are a side effect. That combination is what doctors believe caused her stroke.

She is now on several medications, one that prevents her from driving but she is headed to the Mayo Clinic this month to look at other options on her road to recovery.