Has anyone ever had an epidural for constant pelvic pain ?

[Dolcie]

[charlie12]

Hi Dolcie

Sorry that you are having this problem. I haven't had this procedure, but had a massive laporotomy to "investigate" mine. Needless to state it mad things much worse for a while. The pain I have is now under control with lowish dose medication , amitriptyline 35mg at night. I also did three CBT courses which were wonderful.

I seem to remember that an RCOG guidance on Chronic Pelvic Pain came out after I was operated on. It basically says "don't operate" , I could have told them that. It also said to use medication first line, non steroidals such as ibuprofen , but I'm sure you have tried that.I can't remember is epidurals were recommended , but they make sense.Avoid agreeing to another investagive operation without a second opinion though.

I read your previous posts and it sounds as if you have had a really rough time poor thing. All of this, plus invasive procedures, affects our poor little battered immune systems.

I hope that things work out for you.

Love and cyberhugs

Charlie xxx

[Dolcie in reply to charlie12]

Thanks Charlie, you try anything to b out of pain but supposedly chronic pain will never go "learn to manage it" I just feel whilst I still have OC I'm going to have. These symptoms and waiting to go back in for more surgery to hav nods removed and a hysterectomy I know I'm going to have more pain but have no choice Dolcie xxxx

[BJ_UK]

I haven't had an epidural for chronic pelvic pain, but I did have a pre-op epidural for post-op pain relief when I had my TAH/BSO and omentectomy last October. It did keep the post-op pain to a minimum, but - and it's a very big but - the anaesthetist breached my dura when putting in the epidural, and this has caused permanent damage to my right eye, which is NOT something they warn you about! The anaesthetist was very up front about the fact that the dura had been breached, but the only side effect she warned me that I might experience was headache.

The eye problem is something called a sixth cranial nerve palsy, and for several months it meant that my right eye was unable to move to the right, and was therefore unable to track with my left eye, causing me to see double to the extent that I needed to keep the right eye masked. It has improved slowly, but unfortunately I still need to have prisms stuck to the right lens of my glasses to stop me seeing double. It has now stopped improving, and the orthoptist says that I will either need to have a prism permanently or have surgery on my eye to correct the squint.

Because dural breaches don't actually happen very often now that they use smaller bore needles, medical staff are no longer used to dealing with them, so no one spotted the fact that I was having problems because of the dural tap until I developed the sixth cranial nerve palsy, and even then it took them some time to agree that it was the dural tap that caused it. I've done a lot of reading on this subject since, and I had hearing problems starting on the day after the operation which should have been a big red flag, but although I described this problem to every doctor and nurse that I saw while I was in hospital, every one of them took the attitude that it wasn't their problem. The anaesthetist had told me to let the medical staff know if I developed a terrible headache, but while I did have some headache, and there was certainly one day in hospital when I felt like death warmed over and in desperate need of lying down, my headache was much less severe than the migraines I had suffered in the past, and nobody thought of contacting the anaesthetist, though she could have done a blood patch which would probably have prevented me from developing the palsy.

I guess what I am trying to say is that epidurals are very good for pain relief, but if you decide to have one and you suffer a dural tap, be very careful to flag up any unusual symptoms you have afterward to the medical staff in charge of your care, ask if they could have been caused by the epidural, and keep asking until they give you a decent answer. In particular, flag up hearing or visual problems, or headaches with a postural element, however mild. I also suffered severe vomiting in the first 24 hours post-op, which might have been because of the dural tap, but vomiting can be caused by lots of other things too!

All the best, and I hope you find relief from your pain soon,

Barbara