I was on here last week talking about how I thought I had a leak...well I did, and last saturday night I started throwing up violently and was extrememly dizzy with the worst headache ever, I went to the ER at 8pm and spent most of the time being ignored by everyone - I was crying and throwing up and they stuck me in a bed in a hallway and gave me some anti-anxiety medicine I guess because they didn't want to deal with me. They did an MRI and saw the leak and sent me HOME at 1am with vicodin and anti-nausea meds and said to see my surgeon Monday (who they talked to).
4am came and I woke up to take meds and I immediately threw up after taking them and then blacked out and my husband thought I was having a seizure (my arms and legs were twitching) and called 911. So the paramedics took me back to the hospital and told me to get off their bed and go lay on the bed in an ER room and I collapsed and blacked out right beside the bed.
I don't remember what happened much, but the next 3 days were a nightmare, I had to wait until Tuesday to get surgery and nothing they were giving me was helping. I was in ICU the entire time on morphine and anti-nausea meds (which didn't help), no food or water, I was given 4 IVs by the time I left because I needed 2 originally and 2 became infiltrated. I couldn't stand, barely sit up, I wanted to die. At first I used a bedside toilet until even that was too much, I almost passed out sitting on that, I can't even imagine now what it was like for the 4-5 nurses/whoever in the room that came rushing in when I almost blacked out with my underwear around my ankles sitting on a portable toilet next to my bed - I wasn't even in a gown, just a tank top and underwear. I was wishing they would just give me a catheter I was in so much pain it hurt to open my eyes let alone move to get out of bed - so I was put on a bed pan after that, it hurt just to roll over on to it.
I finally had surgery on Tuesday around noon, I woke up around 4 I think and it was like night and day. No pain will ever compare to the pain of that spinal fluid leak. I came home yesterday, the day after my repair surgery and I have a good amount of pain from being reopened and from their carelessness with securing my head in place - I have all these cuts and my scalp hurts SO bad. I know it was emergency surgery and they had to fit me in between scheduled surgeries but still...ugh.
I don't know if anyone else has experienced such a horrible time with a spinal fluid leak, but nothing prepared me for just how sick you can get from a leak. My surgeon said I had 2 tiny little pinholes that fluid escaped from and that was it.