Do I have a spinal leak?

[tabitha8503]

This past Friday I had surgery and they gave me a saddle block. That day, I had an extreamly painful headache (to the point of tears) and very bad back pain. It felt like the pain was in my spine, different type of pain than what I'm familiar with. The pain in my back would stay consistantly at a 3 or 4 but then depending on activities or movement would instantly jump to a 6 or 7. Called the Dr on Saturday and they told me it should get better and go away but to call back Monday if it didn't. Monday I called and stated the pain is still there, consistantly at a 3-4, that the pain still spikes to a 6-7 not quite as frequently as on Friday. Headaches are still there primarily back of the head and front, left side of the head. Starting Sat or Sun I also had stiffness in the neck. It does feel noticably better when I'm lying down. Tend to be okay when I first wake up until I actually get out of bed. Dr keeps telling me to just give it time and it will go away but I can't function like this. Any ideas to what may be causing this?

[selmaS]

Hi and welcome to the Chiari forum.

I had a leak after an epidural with child birth......u can not stand lights, noise or to stand up.....it may sound like a chiari HA, but it is worse .

I agree with Dawn it could be a combo of the drugs used and the after effects of the surgery.......as Dawn mentioned there should be signs of a leak.


In the meantime...caffine can help with a CSF leak HA....and lying flat......if this persists call ur dr.

Please post an update

"selma"

[Dawn1214]

I have not had surgery on my chiari but I did have spinal cord surgery and experianced some of the same things you are experiancing. When I called my dr. the nurse thought I may have had a csf leak and she asked me to check around my incision area to see if there was anything puffy, swollen and soft. Do you notice anything like that around your incision?

I don't know what would be causing your pain but i do know that a lot of people who had surgery feel this way for quite a while. Selma is still getting headaches and I am hoping someone who has had surgery will chime in and give you more advice.

Hope you are feeling better soon. Please keep us updated.