Heather is the unlucky one out of every 200 epidural patients who gets to experience the joy of a Spinal Headache.

The average sized adult human has roughly 150ml (a little less than 8 oz or 1 cup) of a clear watery fluid, called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the central nervous system, surrounding the spinal cord and brain. One of the functions of the CSF is to provide a protective layer, essentially to act as a cushion to shield the brain from the hard bony skull and to provide a soft environment for the blood vessels to supply and drain blood from the brain. There is a thin membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord called the "dura". When there is loss of CSF for whatever reason, usually as a result of a hole in the dura, the brain tends to sag, due to loss of this protective fluid cushion. This brain sagging causes stretching in the connective tissues in the cranium, this stretching is sensed as pain, and hence the headache. Also, the loss of some CSF causes blood vessels in the brain to dilate, which can also be perceived as a painful sensation. The technical term for this kind of headache, known commonly as "spinal headache", is post-dural puncture headache, or PDPH.

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However, sometimes, even in experienced hands, the epidural needle goes a bit too far and a hole is made in the dura. Anesthesiologists call this a "wet tap". There is a more significant leak of CSF in this case, because the epidural needle is much larger than a spinal needle. Statistics show that this happens in about 1% of cases. When a wet tap does occur with an epidural needle, the incidence of headache goes way up to about 50-70%.

Heather not only had one wet tap, but it happend twice. She had headaches the last few days but they were manageable, but today after the visit to the pediatrtian she was floored by a headache. If it's not any bette we are going to call the hospital to see if a blood patch is the way to go.

In this procedure, a small amount of blood is drawn from your arm and injected into the epidural space. The blood clots, seals the hole made in the dura membrane, and the headache is relieved. The blood eventually is absorbed from the epidural space, and other than some mild to moderate backache for a few days, there are no long-term sequelae from an EBP.

Trading a crippling headache for moderate back pain, I suppose it's an improvement but not a great one.

(Spinal Headache information taken from here.)