postpartum neurological symptoms

[katetorpey]

What could be the name of the syndrome experienced
by many women who have posted here?
There must be a connection between giving birth and
neurological complaints that do not fit other
neurological diseases.
My daughter is three months postpartum with numbness
and weakness in her arms and legs, fatigue, and visual
disturbances.  Her MRI (done when the baby was 3 months) is perfectly normal.  
Her baby weighed 10 pounds at birth.  She had an epidural during her delivery. When the baby was 2 months old she had an IUD  inserted.  Four days after the IUD was put in the symptoms  appeared.
There has got to be some connection.  There have been almost
no studies of postpartum neurological syndromes.
HELP!

[islandgal]

Have any of you received meds for labor? I have had many symptoms described, starting about 8 years ago after my first was born.(vaginal birth,but with some meds. no epidural.) I have just had a fifth child-now 7mo.(tried the epidural)
Years ago I started feeling numbness and tingling on my left foot. It progressed to hand,arm,lip,cheek, and now eye. I also experience blurred vision in this eye off and on. Lately I have started stuttering, having memory loss, forgetttting words in the middle of sentences, and balance problems. I just had an MRI, and it was fine. I'm off to see the neurologist in Feb. He will probably say what he said three years ago. It is probably stress or painless migrains. My insurance is an HMO and I don't feel they are doing all they can.

[ck1974]

I too have had similiar symptoms. Mine started 2 months after the birth of my second child. I have tingling toes and back, twitching, shaky hands. I've also had a clean MRI of the brain, EMG/NCV, bloodwork for thyroid troubles and such. I am going to request a test for Lyme disease and a spinal MRI just to be sure. If anyone finds out anything more about this, please let me know.

[t_anunson]

Hi I`ve had neurological symptoms for 15 mos now, after having my baby. I had an epidural too. They had to place mine twice! It didn`t numb me that great, made me dizzy and I threw up and shook with it. It did relieve a lot of the pain, but it also scared me to get it. I had my daughter vaginally. The nurses and doctors kept moving me around like spaghetti. I think they caused some nerve damage. My symptoms also flare up around my period. I think hormones are related some how too. I`ve had a lot of tests, all normal so far. Well take care....

[Michelle_aus]

Ive been searching for some similar, symptoms for some time,Im now 41 and live in Australia, my daughter is now 13, I have three children, my daughter being my last.
13 years ago my life changed, I had an epidural,when given I felt intense pain, I knew something was wrong , as Id had two before, with no problem,The doctors told me they had punctured a nerve, as I couldnt feel a part of my back around that area.
That was only the start of my nightmare, as the sensation started to come back and I could feel tingling, thats when everything else started, Ive had horrific symtoms,ones that come and go with no set pattern, they include,tightness in the left side of my face, a feeling like my brain is moving,feelings of my jaw is moving, tingling in my left arm,a feeling like my tounge is swollen, and so on , all tests are fine, blood and MRI, you name it, Ive had it,its easy for doctors to pass this off as stress,The only stress I have is knowing what they did and cant do a thing about it.
I feel for all you women out there, there is something wrong and it needs to be addressed....take care Michelle

[tedmama]

Hello,

Can you tell me what kind of neurpathy you experienced?  Was it variable or persistent in the places it affected?

I am having lower lip, cheekbone and left arm & hand paresthesias.  The first thing, lower lip tingling, showed up when my son was 5 months old.  He turns a year old this week, and I get an MRI and bloodwork done then, too.  Jaw x-rays have been fine, but that's all I've had done so far.

My son is still nursing and obtaining at least 90% of his nourishment that way.  I am wondering if the hormonal state of extended breastfeeding predisposes one to neurological problems because of the low estrogen levels.  No one I've questioned so far can do anything but shrug.

And I have heard that several months after having a baby, the immune system almost overcompensates for the depressed immunity state of pregnancy.  Perhaps at times it could overshoot the mark and attack the central and peripheral nervous systems through whatever mechanisms . . . just wondering.  

Have you or has anyone heard about nursing or postpartum immune system changes possible factors?

Beth

[111360]

I am about nine years into my neurological problems.  I just want to say that mine began when breastfeeding, when my daughter was 9 mos. old.  She was born at home WITHOUT an epidural.  I do not think the range of problems most of you are experiencing could be due to the epidural.  My problems included visual disturbances, neuropathy (twitching, cramping, and parasthesias), fatigue, mouth sores, and migraines.  I went to at least 20 different doctors, neuros, neuromuscular docs, oral pathologists, neuromuscular doctors, internists, Infectious disease, you name it I went!  No one ever came up with anything definite to explain my symptoms.  I had normal MRI and bloodwork repeatedly.  I do know that at the time my symptoms surfaced, I was very very very overly tired (my daughter was a very difficult baby; but now she is "perfect" :-) I also had two boys 5 & 3 and was in school!   I have a few theories:  one, some sort of infectious disease (probably viral) that surfaced because my immune system was shot due to the stress & fatigue, two, an autoimmune syndrome as yet unnamed, three, perhaps Lyme Disease.  I have read that sometimes autoimmune syndromes surface postpartum.  Here's the good news:  over the last 9 years I have slowly recovered to the point of being 80%, 80% of the time.  This was done with vitamin supplementation esp. B complex, essential oils, acupuncture and chinese herbs, nutrition, and other alternative therapies.  I also take .25 klonipin every night for deep sleep.  There was a time I was on effexor, and that did really help the neuropathic symptoms.  I truly feel for all the moms going through this now.  I wish there was more I could do to help you, as I know firsthand how hellacious it is to feel bad with young children.  God bless you all.