Epidural Hell!

by Angie
(Red Lion, Pa)

I have 2 children and I had both of my children in a different hospital with different staff.

With my first born I received a "walking epidural" which I was told would allow me to walk but not feel the pain of the contractions.

When I got to the hospital I was 4 cm dilated and moving along pretty quickly. I was 6 cm dilated when the epidural was placed.

After the epidural, I did not feel pain of contractions at all so in that sense, I got the relief I was looking for.

However, after I received the epidural, I stopped dilating. My labor ended up being over 30 hours and I could not eat and after awhile, I could not walk either.

I was told that an epidural could slow your labor down so I was aware of that.

With my second born, I had discussed other possible pain meds that could be given during delivery because I did not want to lay in labor for a long period of time again.

My doctor assured me that the chances of that happening with a second child was unlikely due to the fact that commonly with each birth the labor time is shorter.

I ended up having to be induced with my second child and I again requested an epidural.

This time, there were no complications...or so it seemed.

The epidural was effective as far as pain went and it did not slow down my labor. I was in labor for 4 hours and 50 minutes when my daughter was born. I felt great!

After they took out the epidural I started having a lot of neck pain that felt similar to a stiff neck. I asked to have some tylenol which was honored.

The longer the epidural was out, the worse the neck pain became and now I was also having a headache as well. The first after I had this done the headache and neck pain got pretty bad.

They were giving me Vicodin and Ibuprofen to control the headaches and neck pain. Neither were doing much for either problem.

The next day, one of the hospital anesthesiologist's came to see me and I told him about my headache stiff neck. He advised that they could do a procedure called a blood patch and it was 90% effective in taking care of the headaches after an epidural.

Apparently when I had received the epidural during my labor my spinal cord was punctured and I now had spinal fluid leaking out which was causing this massive headache.

I was scheduled to get a tubal ligation done that day and so I declined his offer to do a blood patch and decided to see if the meds would just help the headaches. I was advised at that time that the headache could last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks!

By this point, the headache was awful but I still tried to avoid a blood patch simply because it's basically another epidural but instead of medication that would numb me, they would inject my own blood into the epidural and the theory was my blood would clot on the puncture and stop the headache. I did not get any better. In fact, I got worse.

The headache and neck pain got so bad I could barely nurse my baby. I had problems with nursing my first born son but I had seen a lactation consultant with my daughter and felt confident that I could nurse with success.

The second night she was born she woke up crying and her dad had to change her and give her a bottle because my headache was so severe that I could not do these things.

I agreed to do the blood patch because at that point, I felt that I could not go home and take proper care of my baby. I received the first blood patch the day I was being released from the hospital and I felt great when I left.

It had worked and I had no headache and the only side affect was a little stiffness in my back and a little groggy from the sedative they gave me during the procedure.

I came home, took pictures, gave my baby a bath, and felt pretty good. That night when I went to bed I was a little stiff in my muscles which I figured was a result of labor and the blood patch.

When I woke up in the middle of the night to my baby crying and I COULD NOT get out of bed I knew something was wrong. I was literally stuck in my bed and my body was so stiff I could not move at all. I forced myself up with the help of my husband and the moment I sat up, blinding pain shot through my head. The headache had come back with a vengeance.

I called the hospital that morning and spoke with another anesthesiologist who advised me that sometimes people have to get a second blood patch for it to be 100% effective. By this time, I did not want these people putting anymore needles in my spine but the pain was so bad that I would have done just about anything to get rid of it.

I again went and had a blood patch done. Again, when I left the hospital I felt better but I still had a dull headache. They said this was normal and since I could actually stand up, I felt like it would get better.

Over the course of the next few hours the headache was back again and again I was completely put out because of it. This headache was the worst pain I had ever felt in my life. And that's saying something considering I had given birth twice and had a history of kidney stones.

My doctor gave me a migraine medication as well as vicodin and neither touched this pain. The only way I could get out of bed was by taking 2 migraine pills and 2 extra strength tylenol at a time every 3 hours.

They told me this was too much medication and I knew I was over medicating but I had no other option at that point. They only do 2 blood patches and neither were successful with me. The medication made me feel weird and between the heavily medicated feeling and the horrible headache I really thought I was going to die.

The headache was so bad it was distorting my hearing. I called the hospital and they told me it was highly unlikely that I would still be having headaches and they were now questioning rather this was even something that had happened because of the epidural and were insisting this was a problem I had prior to labor.

This was not true at all!

I had never been one to complain about pain or even have pain much other then when I'd get kidney stones which hurt like hell but at least the medication would help them.

The headaches were so bad that I literally would crawl outta bed and down my hallway to make my infant a bottle. At this time I had to stop nursing because I was so loaded up on meds all the time that I felt that it was unsafe to be nursing my baby.

This was just another thing that made me feel like an awful mother as a result of this epidural. This went on like this for 11 days. 11 days of pure hell. I couldn't eat, I couldn't hear right, I couldn't stand up without feeling like my head was going to explode and I was sure that if the headache got any worse my brain would explode because of all the pressure on it.

Nothing took this pain away.

I am usually extremely sensitive to meds so for this to be so bad that heavy narcotics didn't help didn't make me feel any better. After 11 days the headaches eased up and when I woke up and felt better I cried because I was sure I was going to die just days before.

Since then I have not had any crippling headaches which is great but I do have a lot of lumbar pain and back spasms still. I do still have headaches way more often then I ever did but they are easily controlled with tylenol and I'm completely functional.

I am now seeking out a second opinion of another doctor that 2 hours away from my house. This has been an awful experience and I feel like I missed out on the fun parts of having a newborn the first 11 days of her life. I had to stop nursing as a result of this which was also an experience I wanted with my baby and did not get.

If you can handle labor without an epidural then you shouldn't get one. They have other pain meds available and although I do not know how effective they are I can assure you that if you end up like me with one of these headaches you will be regretting doing it.

Labor hurts but it only last a few hours, this pain is still ongoing and now I'm not even sure if I'm ever going to be the same. I am only 26 years old and I should not be even questioning that at this point in my life. If you do get one please make sure it's by an experienced doctor and try everything else first!!!