anyone else have a spinal headache?

meg1974

I had a wet tap during the epidural. I started feeling a headache on Friday (2 days after the birth), and it isn't getting any better. I've been on drugs because of my c-section, so I probably had the headache all along and just didn't feel it until now.

My neck hurts a lot too, which I read can also be a side effect of the wet tap.

Anyone else have these symptoms? What did you do about them?

nikinoodles

I had one with my first child (c-section) from the spinal. It was discovered on day 2, while I was in the hospital. Worse pain of my life...the drugs they were giving me werent even helping.

Symptoms were intense head pain, neck pain, intolerance to light and noise (even faint noises) and very stiff-like when I would try to turn my head. I would pretty much have to turn my entire upper body.

Call your doc if you suspect you have one, they are no fun and can come back again and again if you dont get it taken care of. GL!

sarahleigh23

Yes! And man it hurts. I put a heating pad on it and a few days later it was gone. It started 3 days after I had Isaac. Worst pain ever, just lay down take your meds and try the heat pad. I hope your feeling better soon!

snassery

Yup, sound like a dural puncture (wet tap) headache. ?Especially since you had a known dural puncture. ?

Call the hospital and ask to speak to the anesthesiologist on call. ?The choices are continue drinking lots of fluid, caffeine, and headache medicine or go back in for an epidural blood patch. ?It is basically where we do an epidural, and instead of injecting medicine, we take about 20-30 cc blood from your arm in a sterile manner and inject it into the epidural space. ?It can lead to a little bit of a backache, but it often cures the headache on the spot. ?They'll also check your blood pressure just to rule out preeclampsia as the source of your headache, but you have the classic symptoms of a spinal headache.

I hope you feel better soon!

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kimsy

I did, and the anesthesiologist recommended that I drink extra caffeine. I was a little worried because I BF and didn't want it to affect LO, but I added an extra cup of coffee and it seemed to help. Motrin and extra water also helped for me.

Hope you feel better!

*Caress*

I had it, It's the worst pain ever! I had a blood patch done which actually relieved my headaches on the spot but 24 hours later it returned... I was hospitalized for 9 days and on morphine because the headaches were so painful and no pain meds were working.  Just lay down, trust me don't over work yourself. If the pain doesn't go away, go get the blood patch done, it'll work but stay in the hospital over night....that's one thing i didn't do and should have done.... That's why the pain came back after 24 hrs.