anyone had a bad reaction to an epidural?

[porolli]

I gave birth to my third child one week ago. I had an epidural (which I feel upset about requesting now), which was administered only 40 mins before delivery and therefore took effect about 20 mins later. Immediately after the birth I felt elated, exhausted etc ie the feelings I had after the birth of my first two. However,I was then got up by the midwife for a bath and started repeatedly fainting, had impossible dizziness, blurred vision, neck ache and confusion (thinking at one stage I was my 95 year old grandmother). All of the symptoms, bar the confusion, lasted in a severe way for the next two days and to a lesser degree for another three and yesterday I had clear vision for the first time. The hospital say it was nothing to do with teh epidural - I must have had a coincidental viral infection. Anyone experienced anything similar as it's driving me mad trying to reconcile myself to what happened. And I worry about not having bonded with my son for his first few days...

Do you have low blood pressure porolli? An epidural lowers your blood pressure, so if it is low to start with, that could explain the dizziness and fainting.

I have very low blood pressure and knew an epidural could cause fainting problems, but the pain was too much for me and I had one anyway! I did have extreme dizziness and thought several times I was about to pass out, although never actually did. The epidural was still worth it.

I'm no medical professional, but it sounds to me as if the mw shouldn't have got you on your feet so soon. The neck ache and blurred vision sound more problematic though - possibly neck ache was from being in a difficult position during labour?

thanks for your replies. yes, I do have slightly low blood pressure, but no one mentioned it might be a problem...
the most frustrating thing is that no one seems able to pinpoint what it was. although I had one anaesthetist visit me on day 2 or 3 (it's alla blur!) saying that ina miniscule proportion of epidurals there can be a leak of spinal fluid, which can cause the brain to 'drop' very slightly causing the type of complaints I had. however, it would also usually result in crippling headaches as well, and I'm thankful to say mine were restricted to my neck.
i also had ruptured membranes for about 40 hours before birth but received no antibiotics at any stage (partly because of very fast second stage) and the community midwife who visited yesterday was very surprised about that...
I'm trying not to get obsessed about this but am suffering flashbacks all the time and want to be able to feel more positively about my experience and move onto looking forwards...

I had a dural puncture when I had an elective section. Very luckily I didn't get the headache - the woman in the bed next to me did and was in agony. But it doesn't sound like your symptoms were necessarily a dural puncture - in my case both me and the aneasethtist knew it was happening as he did it. It was very painful.

I then went onto having lots of problmes with BF etc. So ended up tieing myself in knots about had I made the right choices for the birth - should I have insisted on trying for labour despite their "compelling" medical reasons for C section. Were the problems with BF due to the epidural etc etc.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that unless you have a very straightforward birth you are always going to question the choices you made. Was there a way of having a "better" birth. But without wishing to sound trite the whole process has risks attached to it.

It sounds like you had a fairly horrendous time and I guess it would help you move on if you knew why it happened. Put it to rest etc. But it sounds like it could have been any number of things...low bp/possible side effect of epidural etc. To be fair to my aneasethist he knew he'd messed it up straightaway and confessed straight away. Brave man - I thought my Mum was going to hit him.

As for bonding with your son - babies and parents have bonded despite all sorts of very hard starts. I actually made a complaint to the hospital about my treatment - which I found theraputic and it actually got me some answers. It gives you someone to talk to and if you make the complaint offical they have to respond, investigate etc. It may be a way to go. In the meantime try and be gentle with yourself. You've had a tough time, you need to recuperate and spend some time focussing on your lovely new boy.

I did once - not in childbirth, tho - and had to have something called a 'blood patch' to get rid of the headache. It SUCKED! The headache was so bad I'd vomit or faint when I moved from lying down to sitting, sitting to standing.

Hospital's full of shit, if you ask me. Viral infection my ass! Too lazy and cheap to treat the epi headache if you ask me.

bluedogs - I had a dural puncture with my twins - I did get the headache - I could not sit or stand for over a week - not a good start to looking after twins !

Expatinscotland and throckenholt - were you told of the risk of a dural puncture? Also did they say whether you were likely to have the same problem if you had another epidural? I don't mean to hijack the thread but I'd like to know as I want to start ttc but would like to know if I'm likely to have this again.

Back to the original thread. I agree asking to see your notes is the way to go. They will fudge the issue as long as you let them. Maybe wait until you are feeling a bit stronger i.e. concentrate on your boy for the moment and in a couple of weeks or whenever you are ready get in touch with them. It might also help if you just jotted down your recollection of events - what happened when. Just for the sake of accuracy - much as you might think you'd never forget it now it will fade in time.

I don't remember them mentioning it - but I was aware it could happen - which was one of the reasons I was always wary of epidurals - I ended up having two - one with each pregnancy.

I don't know, but don't think, certain people are prone to the problem - just unlucky - I think it is fairly uncommon.

thanks everyone. I agree it's best to move on and focus on my little ones. I hope it's just being one week in, very tired and extremely emotional and feeling guilty about having to ignore my 4 and 2 year olds to a certain degree. I will jot down what I feel happened, leave it a week or so and see how it feels then

no, i wasn't told about it verbally, but i signed a consent form to get the epi and i'm sure it was in there.

i had subsequent epis and never had a problem.

what scares me the most is the lack of information given to us before labour starts, midwives have an opportunity for 9 months to inform women of the full risks, potential complications... yet the only thing i was ever told was epidurals are bad cause they will slow down labour!! i do remember the anaesthetist trying to tell me of these risks but i think i swore at him, probably wasn't the best time for me to make an informed decision.

its so sad you can't move on yet, take comfort in your new little one and be thankful he is here safe and sound.

thing is, 90%+ of the time, epidural goes just fine. complications are rare. for the most part, it's the bees knees.

i've had subsequent epis that were brill.

I had an epidural with my first child and had the most blinding headache where I couldn't sit up or stand for a week. The hospital were dismissive of it in the beginning until the consultant came over and suggested it was a dural leak. They were going to do something about it but never did. Headache lasted 9 days - even sitting to feed DD was pain I can't describe. I thought I would die from it and that is not an exaggeration. I thought I would go mad from the pain and the medical staff weren't very sympathic at all. I was treated like I was being dramatic when in reality I couldn't raise my head from the pillow an INCH without collapsing with the pain.

I could cry now at the memory of an auful awful time.

Don't worry about you and the baby bonding - that will come naturally. I hope you soon feel better. Speak to your HV for some support and there is loads of support on here if you need it. Keep talking about it - I wish to god there was mumsnet when I went through it because I felt I couldn't talk to anyone as they would be all be thinking "yeah, we've all had babies" - IYKWIM!

To be fair my epi was fine - for despite the puncture I didn't get the headache - thank god. It looked bloody miserable for the poor woman next to me who had it. I guess its just a risk you choose to take - I was told by the anesethist prior to the op that there was a 1 in 300 chance of this happening. Naively I thought that as it was an elective section the risks from the epi might be minimised. Also as mentioned there was the woman next to me who also had a dural puncture and the rumour of another woman. The odds on that don't add up. However lets face it its also a very effective form of anaesethetic for most people most of the time.

With dd1 I had a bad experience where the thing hadn't been placed properly and was having to be topped up every 15 mins. In the end I had to have a spinal as I was in so much pain.

However I decided to have another one with dd2 and it worked a treat no probs what so ever. it wore off just in time for me to feel the pushing sensation.

I have had 1 epidural and 1 spinal block, both times i shook violently ad uncontrollably, like shivers and trembles. it was scarey as i was not in control of my own movements, especially as all the theatre people assumed i was cold which i was not. i am obviously had some type of reaction to the drug, but no one could explain it, anyone else had something like this?

KBear - can't believe you were not offered a blood patch to block the leak

slinkstah - your experience of shivering is a well known side effect of epidural and spinal. You should have been reassured by the staff that it would pass. Being frightened makes the shivering worse.

I find that women having epidurals are in so much pain they do not listen closely about the side effects. Their main concern is to get the pain to stop. That's why it is better for women to learn about them before the event. Too often it is just thought an epidural makes labour pain free. It is a huge intervention in labour and as such can have consequences for women.

Thanks for letting me know that mears, its nice to know all was normal, i don't plan on having any more epidurals although if i need one in an emergency, i will be reassured

mears - they talked about it but never did it. I was in hospital for five days after the cs so there was plenty of opportunity.

To be honest, I think it came down to the fact that the staff didn't take it seriously and thought I was being dramatic. I am a tough cookie but I thought I would die from the pain when I sat up - mysteriously I was fine if I stayed lying flat. Pretty difficult to breastfeed a ten-pound baby lying flat when you don't know how to start!

Thankfully, a lovely midwife made time to help me when I was crying in the wee small hours at what a failure I was. She copped hold of my boob, rammed it in DD's mouth and we were away! I will be forever in her debt as I really wanted to feed myself but it get so sore so quickly if you're doing it wrong doesn't it?

Kbears - glad you had a helpful midwife. However when you have the pain you describe for over 48 hours you should have had a blood patch. The result is instantaeous.