WARNING: PG-13 (L)

Sorry everyone, I am giving up all my class for this posting but if you are woman with children, I am SURE you will understand.
Here I go on my soapbox.
On Thursday July 3 at 4 pm, my head began to throb. I thought maybe I was getting a migraine so I went and laid down for a couple of hours. When I woke up, there it was again. A pulsating throb right at my temples. I continued taking all the usual drugs that you take after a baby plus upping my water intake by a million. Still no relief. Went to bed later that night, woke up the next morning, (the 4th of July) and my head was worse. This throbbing was contstant now and every time I moved it was like a bomb was going off in my head. Unbearable I tell you! Many times the pain was so bad I thought I was going to pass out.
Finally at 3 pm on the 4th, I called my dr. Uh oh, he told me it sounded like I had a Spinal Headache. I, personally, had never heard of that. He presumes to tell me the only was to get rid of it is by going to the ER and getting this procedure called an Epidural Blood Patch done. Never heard of that either. So I called the hospital to see if I could bypass the ER and go to labor and delivery since it would be an anethesiologist doing this procedure on me. They tell me to get to the ER and then page the anethesiologist and we will be in and out. And the plan was tpo make it to the firework show by 9:30. Uhhhhh, yea right.....
We drop the kids off at our AMAZING friend's house whom we were going to celebrate with later and we headed to the ER. Got there at 4:30. Here is where the language might get vulgar, I will try and hold back some................
When we get there, we tell the receptionist lady what's going on and that my doc sent me in and the anethesiologist is literally upstairs waiting for the page to come down and help us. The receptionist lady told someone that info, obviously not the right someone.
So we waited and waited and waited, just like you do in ER's. And we waited some more. In a period of 3 hours of waiting (for this procedure that takes 5 minutes) we told 4 different people to page the freakin anethesiologist. FINALLY, someone did and guess what?!? He was down in 5 minutes!
So there we were prepping to get htis blood patch. Wanna know what that entales? The nurse sucks 20cc of blood from my arm and the anethesiologist has an epidural needle in my back literally SHOVING the blood down my spine. This is supposed to relieve the headache instantly. Now I wonder how he would know that as he has NEVER had a spinal block OR a blood patch done....Hmmmm.
Oh and the Spinal headache is a result of the first anethesiologist giving me my spinal block during delivery and make a pin size whole in my spinal fluid area spmething or other and there was a leak in my spinal fluid running up and down my spine, hence the massive headache.
OK, back to the ER. The procedure really only took 5 minutes. They were not exaggerating that part. But holy hell, my back suddenly hurt more than the bloody headache. I was told a little burning and aching in my hips woas normal, but THIS! OK, I guess that's one way to get rid of a headache! Sove blood down her spine so that that hurts more than her head. GENIUS! And why in the crud did the NOT give me any pain meds via IV to help with the pain in the back is beyond me. If I knew it would hurt that much, I would have MADE them give that to me first. So here I am, in the most horrible pain in the world on the 4th of July in the ER with a precious baby who wants to nurse. Oh man, I thought someone was going to die that night!
So they "moitor" me for an hour. All I want to do is GO HOME! The right side of my head stopped pounding, but the entire left side of my body was in SO MUCH pain. So much for INSTANT relief. Since it wasn't instant, they were starting to be concerend that perhaps it WASN'T a spinal headache and maybe I didn't need that horrible blood shoving procedure done. I was furious! They wheeled me in for a CT scan as they were waiting to hear back from the dr. to see what he suggested. Blood work, pee sample, CT scan and Pain Meds. All of those things were done EXCEPT, OOPS we forgot to get her the Pain Meds! This is even after we paged the nurse 3 times for pain meds and STILL no meds. OK, I know this is a long story, but keep reading and I will give you advice that might save you from something so horrible!
LONG story shortened a little, at 10:45 pm, almost 7 hours later, the doc and nurse came in and I told them I felt great (LIE) and I could walk (LIE) and I was ready to go home. I didn't think they would make me walk. But to get out of there, I did and not without MAJOR pain! Oh and this was not without BEGGING to send me home and Brandon telling me HE would remove the IV if he had to when we got home. 11:15 pm, we were on our way home. This "quick in and out" procedure took a whopping like 7 hours.
The bad news, no one told me how to take care of myself once we got home. Thank goodness for the internet. I was on my back for 48 hours, up only to nurse and go to the bathroom. And I could barely move. Yes, the headache was gone, but the trade off was a very sore back. I just felt like I would rather do a million c-sections thatn something like this as in the end there was no reward. The other bad news, today is Sunday, my back is still a little sore and my headache is back!! Not as strong, but it is there.
So according to the internet these spinal headaches occur 1 in 3 women who get a spinal block. It is not as common with the epidural. So WHY the CRAP does the doctor take 10 seconds to say "if you start to get a throbbing headache after your surgery, go to the hospital and get help because you most likely have a spianl headache...." I don't know. And WHY after ALL the suffering of a blood patch does my head stil hurt, yea that's a mystery to me too. BUT left "untreated" you could have this headache for weeks or months! If you DO get it treated, you get the HEADACHE AND the BACK ACHE! 2 for the price of one. What a deal huh? Hope this doesn't happen to you. And PS, I used a lot less language than I did in the hospital. Pat on the back to me!