medmarecsd

I need some help!! I will post this in different boards also. I am a 36 y.o. white female. I underwent cervical fusion in 4/06. There was a complication from this surgery in which one of the fixation screws went completely through the dura and into the space around the spinal cord. This ultimately caused severe spinal fluid leak and severe spinal headache. A second fusion surgery insued 9 days after the first one to fix the damage. I continued to have spinal headache symptoms and siezure like activity with normal EEG after the second surgery. Five frustating months later I was found to still be leaking CSF fluid at the surgery site. The hospital that finally found the persistent leak said there was little that could be done for a 5 month old cervical CSF leak and that it may or maynot heal over time. Three months later I was told by the Cleveland Clinic that they could no longer find any evidence of CSF leak and could not explain the persistent symptoms. They suggested pain management and possibly blood patches just to see if it helped. I continued to have the persistent symptoms into January 07, at which time they did do two blood patches. These seemed to work for awhile. I no longer have the spinal headache but I do have the following symptoms that were present through this whole ordeal but were unexplainable.

1. Intense pressure sensations in my head with certain position changes. This pressure sensation feels like all of the blood has rushed to my head and has no where to go. During this sensation there is always pulsating in my left ear.

2. Vision loss in the Right eye with the afformentioned pressure sensation at times.

3. Hypertesion/Orthostatic Hypotension - neither of which were present before this surgery.

4. Hypothyroidism - again, not present before the surgery.

5. Hemiparesis right side - occurs sometimes with the pressure sensations. The last episode that I experienced sent me to Cleveland Clinic for three days to role out stroke! There were no imaging abnormalities but hemiparesis is still present over a week later.

6. It seems that when I have a severe episode of this pressure sensation/ left side headache, that I have increase urine output for some reason - I'm talking like 2000+ ml in one hour!!

7. I've also had vague abdominal problems with mild constipation that I never had before the surgery.

8. An overwhelming feeling of physical fatigue with little extertional effort.


I know this is a lot of information and I'm sure that few people have all of these symptoms but the Cleveland Clinic has given me probable diagnosis of complicated migraine and some type of autnomic nerve problem.

My question - has anyone out there suffered a migraine stroke without imaging abnormalities and does anyone suffer from a autonomic nerve problem? What are your symptoms?

Any suggestions for possible diagnosis and or tx would be appreciated.
This has become very frustrating. It seems that the medical professionals tend to give up on you after awhile and treat you like your crazy or making up symptoms or something. It is hard to keep Drs dedicated to your tx if they cannot figure things out. This somehow gives me a sense of unworthiness and depression.

I'm sorry that this has turned into a novel but you can't see the whole picture without a detailed explanation, something the Drs can't seem to understand!!