Meredith Staggers was driving through Houston, Texas running errands on Aug. 4 when she was struck by a blinding headache and forced to stop on the side of a busy road.

The 35-year-old Cake & Confetti founder suffered from migraines throughout her pregnancy before her third child was born in June, but the pain level in that moment was unlike anything she’d experienced, recalling stroke-like symptoms.

“I started seeing an aura in my left eye and started slowly losing my vision. My face started going numb and then I started losing feeling in my hands and feet,” she tells PEOPLE. “I was trying to call my husband and I couldn’t press the buttons on my phone, like it wasn’t registering in my brain. I was finally able to contact him but 10 or 15 minutes later I lost the ability to speak coherently.”