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What he failed to mention (and some valuable lessons about epidurals)
- Jun 30, 2009 at 3:50 AM
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- Comments (4) Total Views (112) Everyone can see this journal post.
The epidural injections sounded like a great idea...hopefully to help heal up my damaged disk in my lower lumbar & avoid a spinal fusion. The first round of injections went great, and I even had some relief for about a week. So I was excited to see what kind of relief the 2nd round might have to offer....
Everything seemed to go well. But about 3-5 days after my 2nd injection a severe headache took over my body. I spent the first day in the ER, twice. I went that morning, got shot up with pain meds & IV, went home & slept a couple of hours... just to wake up to the same throbbing, severe pain that night... back to the drawing board.. or, the ER. They did a spinal tap just to make sure it wasn't meningitis. I already (obviously) had a spinal fluid leak. What more could they hurt anyway?
Day 2 of the The Throb: Back to the so-called pain management dr who (anesthesiologist), actually failed to mention that he (accidently) caused my spinal leak during my injection. Not only did he fail to mention it at the time, well, he also even tried to blame the ER I went to that did the spinal tap. Ha. What a silly man. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I had gone to the ER in the first place BECAUSE of the severe headache. And the spinal tap wasn't done until my 2nd trip to the ER, with the same, throbbing headache. Get a grip buddy... get a grip...
Now that we've made it clear that I don't really care if it was the cookie monsters fault, I just want this headache gone.... he must've forgotten that since I've been forced to stay in bed for ....days now... I've got nothing better to do but research this throbbing pain on my head with this handy little laptop.
There should've never been a spinal fluid leak with the procedure he originally did. An epidural injection isn't even placed in the same space as the spinal fluid. An epidural injection is actually supposed to be pretty safe and complication free. There shouldn't have been a puncture in my Dura, the place where my spinal fluid swims with my spinal cord. The only reason they have to puncture a dura is for a spinal tap. But we've already made it clear that my fluid was leaking well before the spinal tap.
The only time a spinal fluid leak occurs in a procedure like mine (or any epidural) is if the anethesiologist happens to accidently puncture a little too hard...right into the dura space. Whoops... slip that needle out & try again, simply fixed and the patient is unaware of the whoopsy... unless a leak occurs.
Oh, they know when it happens... their little whoopsy, the leak... they can see it. But he forgot to mention to it to me when it happened. Perhaps he didn't even realize it happened himself? My headache didn't appear for a few days anyway... it's possible (sure it is). It's also possible that he didn't want to admit to messing up. Why? Who knows. Just fix it dude!
He tried. He tried putting in a blood patch on day 2. But everytime he made a new puncture, more fluid would leak! Up until that point, I had decided that the worst pain I've ever felt in my life was a spinal headache (and that's after delivering 6 kids)... it was quickly beaten by the pain of a needle puncturing my spine, several times, & causing more & more fluid to suddenly "spring" a leak instantly. The pain radiated through out my entire body. I could feel it from the top of my head to the tips of my toes... literally. My legs convulsed in pain and I had no control over them. I screamed. I cried. I lost it!
I'm sure I scared every patient around me waiting to go to surgery. I was on a pre-op floor, in a room where pre-op patients would normally be waiting to go to surgery. He had squeezed me in before his morning sedations for surgery. And there were other rooms all around me with other patients... waiting their turn to meet the anesthesiologist next (heehee.) At least I got to have a little laugh in the situation. I have no doubt the families in the surgery waiting rooms heard me screaming, nevermind the poor patients who had yet to be sedated by this same man. Brace yourself... you're next! haha.
Okay... so the blood patch didn't work. He only got it partially in because the pain was so unbearable I was flopping around like a jellyfish. (Hey, when your spinal fluid starts spontaneously leaking, then judge me. Apparently, the pain of a spinal fluid leak can't even be taken away by strong narcotics, such as morphine. I've not only read that in my research, but have now also experienced it firsthand.) My headache was subsided for about 24 hours, compliments of the partial amount of blood he did manage to get in. I was distracted by the throbbing pain in my back the next day... due to the several punctures up my spine from the failed blood patch.. to notice the headache creeping back upon me. But it quickly made itself known shortly after...
Did I mention, he didn't even bother giving me an anesthsia for the procedure? We both assumed it'd be short & short, with very little pain... wrong assumption.
The one thing I can't find in my research... what's next? What if the blood patch doesn't work? Then what? Apparently, according to my (so-called) pain management doctor (aka, anestiologist) just ignore the patients phone calls and hope she'll go away.
Or, according to my neurologist, just blame it on the anestiologist (that you referred her to), play stupid & say that you don't deal with spinal leaks, (actually, have your nurse do it for you, you're not even man enough to speak to her yourself), and refuse to have any part of this big mess that no one seems to have an answer for. She'll eventually go away when you've got nothing for her... if you don't feed the dog, it will eventually go away, right?
This is actually their answer. This seems to be their tactic/solution for my situation. I'm left to lay down all day... alll night... and sitting up is apparently an invitation for the throb to come and annoy me. Sometimes when I sit up I think he's gone... but it's only a matter of minutes (sometimes only seconds) before he sneaks back in for his attack.
Good grief... how long can spinal fluid possibly leak anyway? This thing started on (Wed?) of last week, I believe...give or take about 24 hours of relief I had from the partial blood patch. I've been laying down for so many days in a row that I'm actually just in a complete fog now. It's like a terrible dream. Except I can't wake up! Really? I just have to lay here & live like this until it (hopefully? someday? maybe? never?) goes away by itself?
Gotta love those doctors we spend so many thousands of dollars giving beautiful homes to... gotta love em'...
The moral(s) of the story: Epidural injections are deceitful. They only appear to be harmless. After all, they're not even entering your dura space anyway, not even close to your spinal cord (of course I did my research before the first injection!)... unless of course, your anesthesiologist makes a whoopsy... ok, I didn't find that in my initial research, and the (so-called) pain management doctor, he forgot to mention it as well.
Moral of the story 2: Learn to search for better doctors... specifically a neurologist and an anesthesiologist... you're going to need about 2 new ones in the very near future. Possibly even a lawyer...or maybe the word alone will scare your (regular) dr enough to get you taken care at your appointment tomorrow.
And 3: Don't let your daughter fall asleep on your leg while you're blogging and then be surprised when you start feeling a warm, uncomfortable wetness on your feet & legs.... where she happened to just pee on you while she slumbered. Oi... eh...
Everything seemed to go well. But about 3-5 days after my 2nd injection a severe headache took over my body. I spent the first day in the ER, twice. I went that morning, got shot up with pain meds & IV, went home & slept a couple of hours... just to wake up to the same throbbing, severe pain that night... back to the drawing board.. or, the ER. They did a spinal tap just to make sure it wasn't meningitis. I already (obviously) had a spinal fluid leak. What more could they hurt anyway?
Day 2 of the The Throb: Back to the so-called pain management dr who (anesthesiologist), actually failed to mention that he (accidently) caused my spinal leak during my injection. Not only did he fail to mention it at the time, well, he also even tried to blame the ER I went to that did the spinal tap. Ha. What a silly man. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I had gone to the ER in the first place BECAUSE of the severe headache. And the spinal tap wasn't done until my 2nd trip to the ER, with the same, throbbing headache. Get a grip buddy... get a grip...
Now that we've made it clear that I don't really care if it was the cookie monsters fault, I just want this headache gone.... he must've forgotten that since I've been forced to stay in bed for ....days now... I've got nothing better to do but research this throbbing pain on my head with this handy little laptop.
There should've never been a spinal fluid leak with the procedure he originally did. An epidural injection isn't even placed in the same space as the spinal fluid. An epidural injection is actually supposed to be pretty safe and complication free. There shouldn't have been a puncture in my Dura, the place where my spinal fluid swims with my spinal cord. The only reason they have to puncture a dura is for a spinal tap. But we've already made it clear that my fluid was leaking well before the spinal tap.
The only time a spinal fluid leak occurs in a procedure like mine (or any epidural) is if the anethesiologist happens to accidently puncture a little too hard...right into the dura space. Whoops... slip that needle out & try again, simply fixed and the patient is unaware of the whoopsy... unless a leak occurs.
Oh, they know when it happens... their little whoopsy, the leak... they can see it. But he forgot to mention to it to me when it happened. Perhaps he didn't even realize it happened himself? My headache didn't appear for a few days anyway... it's possible (sure it is). It's also possible that he didn't want to admit to messing up. Why? Who knows. Just fix it dude!
He tried. He tried putting in a blood patch on day 2. But everytime he made a new puncture, more fluid would leak! Up until that point, I had decided that the worst pain I've ever felt in my life was a spinal headache (and that's after delivering 6 kids)... it was quickly beaten by the pain of a needle puncturing my spine, several times, & causing more & more fluid to suddenly "spring" a leak instantly. The pain radiated through out my entire body. I could feel it from the top of my head to the tips of my toes... literally. My legs convulsed in pain and I had no control over them. I screamed. I cried. I lost it!
I'm sure I scared every patient around me waiting to go to surgery. I was on a pre-op floor, in a room where pre-op patients would normally be waiting to go to surgery. He had squeezed me in before his morning sedations for surgery. And there were other rooms all around me with other patients... waiting their turn to meet the anesthesiologist next (heehee.) At least I got to have a little laugh in the situation. I have no doubt the families in the surgery waiting rooms heard me screaming, nevermind the poor patients who had yet to be sedated by this same man. Brace yourself... you're next! haha.
Okay... so the blood patch didn't work. He only got it partially in because the pain was so unbearable I was flopping around like a jellyfish. (Hey, when your spinal fluid starts spontaneously leaking, then judge me. Apparently, the pain of a spinal fluid leak can't even be taken away by strong narcotics, such as morphine. I've not only read that in my research, but have now also experienced it firsthand.) My headache was subsided for about 24 hours, compliments of the partial amount of blood he did manage to get in. I was distracted by the throbbing pain in my back the next day... due to the several punctures up my spine from the failed blood patch.. to notice the headache creeping back upon me. But it quickly made itself known shortly after...
Did I mention, he didn't even bother giving me an anesthsia for the procedure? We both assumed it'd be short & short, with very little pain... wrong assumption.
The one thing I can't find in my research... what's next? What if the blood patch doesn't work? Then what? Apparently, according to my (so-called) pain management doctor (aka, anestiologist) just ignore the patients phone calls and hope she'll go away.
Or, according to my neurologist, just blame it on the anestiologist (that you referred her to), play stupid & say that you don't deal with spinal leaks, (actually, have your nurse do it for you, you're not even man enough to speak to her yourself), and refuse to have any part of this big mess that no one seems to have an answer for. She'll eventually go away when you've got nothing for her... if you don't feed the dog, it will eventually go away, right?
This is actually their answer. This seems to be their tactic/solution for my situation. I'm left to lay down all day... alll night... and sitting up is apparently an invitation for the throb to come and annoy me. Sometimes when I sit up I think he's gone... but it's only a matter of minutes (sometimes only seconds) before he sneaks back in for his attack.
Good grief... how long can spinal fluid possibly leak anyway? This thing started on (Wed?) of last week, I believe...give or take about 24 hours of relief I had from the partial blood patch. I've been laying down for so many days in a row that I'm actually just in a complete fog now. It's like a terrible dream. Except I can't wake up! Really? I just have to lay here & live like this until it (hopefully? someday? maybe? never?) goes away by itself?
Gotta love those doctors we spend so many thousands of dollars giving beautiful homes to... gotta love em'...
The moral(s) of the story: Epidural injections are deceitful. They only appear to be harmless. After all, they're not even entering your dura space anyway, not even close to your spinal cord (of course I did my research before the first injection!)... unless of course, your anesthesiologist makes a whoopsy... ok, I didn't find that in my initial research, and the (so-called) pain management doctor, he forgot to mention it as well.
Moral of the story 2: Learn to search for better doctors... specifically a neurologist and an anesthesiologist... you're going to need about 2 new ones in the very near future. Possibly even a lawyer...or maybe the word alone will scare your (regular) dr enough to get you taken care at your appointment tomorrow.
And 3: Don't let your daughter fall asleep on your leg while you're blogging and then be surprised when you start feeling a warm, uncomfortable wetness on your feet & legs.... where she happened to just pee on you while she slumbered. Oi... eh...
Comments:
1-4 of 4 comments
1
Jun. 30, 2009 at 11:24 AM
wow...i can't even imagine! i hope it gets better soon (dur! lol)!!
Jun. 30, 2009 at 2:29 PM
=( I'd definitely rather be peed on then go through all that. I'm so sorry!
Jul. 1, 2009 at 6:17 AM
I'd think you need to find some *real* doctor to at least figure out how much fluid is actually leaking and decide if immediate action is needed like surgery. Your body doesn't replace that stuff you know.
We had a friend with a major head and back injury...maybe you read about my old pastor's son's accident in China? Anyway...he flew back from China with a spinal fluid leak, but it was dripping out his nose. They rushed him into surgery because he was losing too much too quickly and he couldn't wait for it to heal on it's own.
New doctors. And a consult with a lawyer for sure. I have sworn that I will never pass up an honest opportunity to sue a doctor ever again. I always end up regretting it just about the time the statute of limitations runs out. Consultations are always free, and if they think they'll win, they will take your case on contingency. It's worth the look-see.
The reason the Dr's aren't talking to you is because at this point anything they say or do will feed into a lawsuit and they're afraid they've said/done enough already. I wouldn't be surprised if in a week or two some poor nurse calls you and asks if you blame the doctor for your situation! (Been there...say YES!)
You're in my prayers all day long hon!
1-4 of 4 comments
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My husband experienced the same exact thing from an epidural injection for back pain. The only difference was they told us it was a possibility before the procedure. He went 6 months with the pain. His orthopaedic surgeon fixed it when he operated for his disc. Maybe an orthopaedic surgeon can help you. Couldn't hurt to call around. I have heard that the leak can heal by itself in a few weeks though. I hope you feel better soon. I know how much pain my DH was in. I wouldn't want that for anyone.
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