Has anyone had a blood patch to correct any epidural gone wrong?

Hi Ladies,

With my last caesarean i ended up with a spinal headache from the epidural and they had to do a blood patch the day after, this was excrutiatingly painful. I was wondering if anyone else has had this happen and what is the chance of it happening again is im going in to have bub 3 in a week and im scared the epidural might go wrong again. Can anyone help? Please tell me your experiences as i know there is obviously some chance of it occuring again, but if you tell me your stories it might ease my anxiety a bit.
Thankyou from a very grateful mum to be again. ;)

Welcome to BB :)

I don't have any experiences, but I think it would have more to do with the epidural being done incorrectly, given your symptoms, rather than having anythign to do with you. Hopefully that would mean that if the ob is more careful this time, it shouldn't happen again, KWIM? :)

Never ever... mostly because I am a needle phobe and just the idea of a neede in the spine has me running for the hills..

But - as a trypanophobe, I have heard it all about how epis are mostly safe and complications are fractions of a percent - so you were sadly just unlucky the first time. Fingers crossed for you!

Hi - I have! With my first birth I had a "dural tap" which is when the cerebro spinal fluid leaks and thus causes the most horrendous headache imaginable...

I had a blood patch more than a week later - they thought I should have been in more pain than I was... :rolleyes:

The blood patch should not have been painful - it wasn't for me. About an hour later I could sit upright for the first time and hold my baby properly...

Do you have to have an epidural this time? There are alternatives for pain control/relief that do not have this nasty side effects.

I would strongly suggest exploring the alternatives. I had 3 active and natural vaginal births after my first birth... I used water, heat packs, meditation and chose to be supported through my labour by like minded woman. Maybe these could help reduce your need for more invasive pain control?

I had an epidural 5 weeks ago for my second daughter, and the anaesthetist came to see me the next day to see if I was okay. At that point everything else hurt more than my neck and back and I was on strong painkillers (I had a third degree tear), so probably didn't notice the headache coming on. Two days later though, the pain was excruciating. My neck and head were so sore I couldn't sit up properly. I complained to anyone who would listen - doctors came to see me, I made the nurses get the physio in and bring the anaesthetist back, but everyone kept passing the buck. The anaesthetist said I wasn't in enough pain and said it was probably muscle strain from pushing too hard. The doctor prescribed sleeping pills and said there was nothing else they could do and the physio said it could be muscle strain but wouldn't touch me (until I threatened to bring in a private physio to the hospital). She thought a night in my own bed would fix it!

The midwives were the ones who first suggested I had an epidural headache. I was sent home 5 days after delivery with a massive headache and lots of painkillers. A midwife called me the next day and when I said I couldn't sit up at all she asked me to come straight back in and she would make the anaesthetists come back! That night I got up every three hours for feeds (as I had the whole entire time), and looked after Rebecca the best I could. I would never have dreamed of asking the nurses to do it for me, after all she is my baby. The next morning at handover, I heard the night nurse telling the new nurse that there was obviously nothing wrong with me because I was up and around all night and was fine, I just whinged too much! If I was able to look after the baby there must be no problem! I was in tears after that, and after crying my eyes out to my new nurse she got the anaesthetist back to do the blood patch.

The blood patch hurt, but not as much as labor and not as much as the headache so I didn't mind! It worked straight away, and while I was terrified of having it, I'm so glad I did. The head of anaesthetics said to me that day he has been working for 17 years and has only seen 3 epi-dural headaches in that time, so it is extremely rare. That was their excuse for not listening to me in the first place! If I have another baby, I know now I can't do it without pain relief, and I would have another epidural because I know the chances of it happening again are really tiny. Try not to be worried about it.

Sorry to thread crash - I was interested in this topic . . . I was told that if I got a headache from the epidural they would do another epidural to correct it . . . what is a blood patch?

Rosy your story sounds so much like mine - except when I sat up it was so excruciating that numerous times I vomited. There was no way I could sit for long to feed. My baby had to be put on my chest and I used nipple shields to aid attatchment... It was a complete nightmare. I didnt have any pain during the blood patch. So my experience was a little different. And there was no way I was ever having another epidural after my experience!
It is really frustrating how we "measure" other's pain by how we would respond in the same situation... Recently I had an operation - I developed a haematoma behind the wound which became infected... This was unbeknown to anyone in the beginning. I scaled my pain at a 7 out of 10 at one point.... Was told... You don't look like a 7!!! :wall:
My doc came in after the haematoma was diagnosed and turned to the nurse and said: "we need to up the pain meds - she must be in agony....:wall: Because I wasn''t rolling around the bed groaning - my pain wasn't significant...
Health care providers need to remember that we all experience the same experience differently!

I am so sorry that your early mothering experience was tainted by this my love...:hug:

TG: A blood patch is when venous blood is drawn and then injected into the space the dural tap occured. It basically clots over the area sealing it and then the headache that is due to the leak is gone (because the leak is gone.)

OMG- I just read this thread, i should have come here months ago but reading your stories nearly brought me to tears remebering my own experience.
Inanna- Like you i to spent my first night at home with my son vomitting in a sick bag while trying to breastfeed him without sitting up because the headache was soo excrutiating. Everytime I went to pick my son up I was nauseas and didn't even realise he wasn't getting anything from my boobs because they were engorged, hence why he was screaming all night long.

I was readmitted after the hell that was "the first night at home" the next day. They didn't dismiss my pain but weren't keen to diagnose it as a epi headache because the pain didn't start til 3 days later so they pumped me full of fluids for 2 days while my son was cared for at home by my DH. I was an absolute useless mother in this time and was finally at home for the first time again when my son was 6 days old after they did the blood patch.

Thank you for making this thread, i don't feel so alone anymore.