Can Arachnoiditis be caused by multiple attempts of epidural from labor?

wondering if anyone can help me with a question...i got my report back from the cerebral spinal fluid (csf) and the main thing is that they found systemic inflammatory responce...but i have had my blood checked time and time again for inflamation, even on the same day as the cfs test...so what does that mean.

hello purple

YES everything you said is the same as me. in the past 7 weeks i have only had 9 good days , meaning that i wasnt crying the whole day and that i could do some simple task arond the house. people dont realize how much you back controls everything....from tying your shoe , making a cup of coffe, and yes SEX, i havent had any sort of a sex drive for quite some time now . i was also wondering about any cognitive problems you have had. the reason it is taking me so long to get back to people is that i have extreme decreased memory. i have to constantly remind myself of what it is that im doing. for instance during jusst he little bit of typing i have done here, which has taken 30 min so far, i have stopped mid sentace to try and think what hte hell am i typing....aslo the other day i went to the hospital to pick up my records i looked at my list, my husband helps me make them so i casn just get through the day, saw that i was suposed to go to the front desk and ask for records ...so i went to the front desk asked for my records and got directions, very simple ones go take the first left and it is mid way up the corridor. now i must say looking back that the corridor was quite long . but anyways i took the left then got going and as i was looking at the names listed on all the doors i got very confused, i knew i was trying to go to one of these doors but suddenly could not remember why. i looked down at my list and thought " okay i must be in the hosp" so i started looking for the front desk again. this confusion lasted about 20 min until some one walked out and asked if they could help..once i got back to my car i bawled crying thinking i had just expierienced some form of dementia...me and my family have decided it will be best if i dont drive anymore. have you had any problems with memory like this. i would love to know. i find this part, meaning anything to do with my thinging abililtys is the hardest for me to get through to the doctors.
Also i just went and met with some malpractice att. who are goign to look at my case and see if thereis anything there. by the way where are you from ?

wow!! when i read this, i thought, was this something i posted a while back? i too have wondered this same question. 2 years ago when i had my first child, the anesthesiologist could not get the epidural placed right, and he tried over and over as well. my family and i took pictures a few days later, and all in all we could count close to 30 different hole pokes...and that is not counting places where he made multiple attempts in the same spot. my life is not the same. i have not been able to work and doing every day tasks is difficult. i too have been to pain docs, neuros, p.t., massage, ortho surgeons, etc etc etc. i dont get help, because no tests show any damage and also because no docs want to deal with something taht was caused by another doc. sometimes i will do ok for a few weeks, meaning, i can control the pain with meds, rest, heat and other tools so that it doesnt dominate my day. but than boom, all ofthe sudden i get a few terrible months where my life is miserable.

when this first happened, i did so much research, and the one thing i found that matched all of my symptoms and sounded like it could be caused by a needle going into your back over and over,, was arachnoiditis. but no one will listen to me when i bring it up. mainly, i think, because they dont know the answers. i am sueing the doc that did this to me, but his rebuttle is that there is no "standard of care" in his field. which means that there is no written rule that says an anesthesiologist can't poke you as many times as he deems necessary. even though, i have talked to soooo many docs who have said that 5 times is the max time they woudl ever attempt to place the epidural. the doc who did it to me doesnt even know hwo many times he tried.

i dont know what else to say other than maybe with my lawsuit i can get a "standard of care" in place. what idiot would do that to someone's spine/?!!! i am not all about suing doctors but i cannot describe how this has changed me. i was just thinking today, i want my life back!! i want my own mind and my own body. i cant live around and inside of the pain anymore. but the sad truth is that i might ahve to. i also know that it could be worse, but for me, when a lot of my hopes and dreams have been crushed becuz of my physical and emotional limitations, that doesn't help. please keep in touch with me. maybe we can find others who have been through this. in my mind, its like we have something that hasn't even been discovered or named yet, but that does not mean it should be ignored and written off as "nothing." if more people came forward maybe they would realize that this is real and it is NOT OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am so sorry for what you are going through. i dont have a lot of the symtoms that you have such as the urination probs, but i do have literally NO sex drive and headaches all of the time, my appetite is messed up and i almost always feel sick to my stomach. i also have tried exercising, people act like i am lazy or something, but when i exercise it is so painful. but i dont care because if it will prevent me from getting worse i will do it. thats all i can hope for now, is that it does not get worse. i hope you dont either. i hope to hear from you again!!!

Hi indiana mama,
I can't believe all of this is happening to you! I do have a few questions:
1. Why did your epidural take 2 hours and 9 attempts? What did your doctors and anesthesiologist say about the cause of this?
2. It would be difficult to say if one thing caused another thing (epidural causing spinal injury...I guess that's what you are asking)?. Perhaps your underlying medical conditions were the reason for the difficult epidural, or it could be the other way around?

I didn't read how you are being treated, except with pain medicine. It sounds like you have gone through every avenue, and I'm wondering what treatment options (surgery, for instance?) have been presented to you?

Even with a diagnosis of arachnoiditis, there is little treatment options for this condition. There are conditions that are just called "chronic pain", and it sounds like this is what you are being treated for...is that correct?

I have not heard of any spinal injuries caused from an epidural, as the epidural does not actually come close to your spinal cord (although it feels like it does!). There can be complications from an epidural, but I have not seen the link between an epidural and arachnoiditis.

I hope to hear back from you, and hopefully we will hear from other women who are going through similar chronic pain, and hear how they are helping to treat their symptoms. Do you feel that you need any additional resources (there are many for chronic pain; it just sounds like you have been through many different types of doctors and tests already).