It’s the Dawsons!

Well, things never got better.  They got markedly worse.  She developed a crushing headache that couldn’t be relieved by Percocet, Ibuprofen or anything else.  It really fired up around 4am Sunday and kept getting worse.  It peaked yesterday when she was unable to lift her head.  Literally.  As soon as her head came off the couch cushion, she had about 30 seconds before blinding pain and nausea hit.  She just couldn’t do anything about the pain.  I quickly became convinced this was more than just a neck strain and remembered something about the anesthesiologist saying something about 1% of people who get epidurals can get an “epidural headache” afterward.

I called Billy Jones, my freshman roommate at Marshall, all around good guy and 4th year resident in anesthesia at the Cleveland Clinic to get the download on these headaches.  Turns out, Kari was exhibiting EVERY symptom of one and he was a bit shocked that no one treating her figured it out.  We soon realized that the problem was that we kept describing it as neck pain and it just never clicked with anyone to ask about the headache portion of it.  We called her OB and he told us to head into the ER and get it checked out.

For everyone’s information, an epidural headache or, correctly termed - a post-dural puncture headache (PDPH) - is caused when the epidural puncture allows one’s cerebrospinal fluid to leak out into the soft tissue in the area.  The headache comes because the brain is cushioned by this fluid.  When someone suffering from PDPH sits or stands up, the fluid leaks out the puncture and the brain will drop with gravity - which pulls on all the membranes and blood vessels connecting the brain to the top of the skull.  Sounds pleasant, huh? 

Sue, Kari’s Mom, was able to come over to watch Elliott and we headed to the ER around 5:00.  After dodging the requisite homeless drunk guy in the waiting room, we were admitted and the doctor there quickly came to the diagnosis that Dr. Billy Jones came up with via phone from Cleveland - Kari had a PDPH.  The first attempt to fix it is a caffeine drip.  In less serious cases, the caffeine can mask the symptoms until the body can heal the puncture and fix the leaking/brain dropping problem.  Kari most definitely had a serious case so we were soon on our way to a room on the delivery floor for a blood patch.

The best way to fix a PDPH is a blood patch.  Simply put, the doctor takes blood from Kari’s arm (20 mL) and injects it into the same epidural spot she received the day Elle was born.  The blood essentially plugs the leak and most people get relief within 30 minutes.  Thankfully, Kari was in the 95% of people that the patch works for.  She was still sore in her neck and shoulders, but the headache was gone!  At this point it was 11:30pm and we needed to stay overnight for observation.  Back we headed to the post-partum floor we departed just 2 1/2 days before.

Our sweet little girl was at home in good hands.  Grandma Sue was taking care of her with an assist from Grandpa Gary.  Elle even got a visit from Uncle Boggs and she couldn’t have been better.  We’re blessed with a little girl that eats and sleeps well with minimal fussing.  She is also a pooping machine and Dad was happy to let someone else change a few of those bombs from our little stinkpot. 

Kari and I were able to get a decent night sleep, interrupted by a few nurse visits and pumping, but it was a good chance to catch up a bit.  Kari checked out around 9:00 this morning.  Her headache is completely gone, which is an immense relief.  She has some significant back pain in the epidural location, but that is to be expected and should get better over the next few days. 

A special thanks to Sue and Gary for taking one for Team Dawson and spending the night on our couches.  Thanks as well to Dr. Billy Jones (I just like to call my friends “Doctor”) - glad to see our late nights partying in Twin Towers East didn’t distract you from acing biology and chemistry back in freshman year and got your started on this path.  

We’re happy to be back home with our daughter and mostly I’m just excited to have my Kari back - the light is back in her eyes and she can’t wait to be feeling 100% and do all the things with Elliott she wants to do. 

Bonus Elliott Photo!!

Sleeping on Momma's chest...