was found unconscious 5 days in the hospital due to migraines

Hello,
This will be long, I apologize in advance...
I'm new to this forum but I am usually on the Fibro forum.

I'll try to be quick but a lot has happened this past week. A week ago Friday I was woken up with the worst pain in my head. Something way beyond a migraine. I vommitted a few times but managed to make my way downstairs where my husband was. He walked in the kitchen and asked if I could make it to the couch. I said yes and I fell back straight onto the kitchen floor. Nothing to break my fall. I was unconscious and my son called 911 while my husband tried to help me....

I was admitted to the hospital and had a series of tests to rule out a brain bleed, seizure activity or any heart problems.

I ended up having a spinal tap because the dr was really concerned I had a brain bleed. Painful but I thought it was important.

They had a hard time getting the migraine pain under control. I was on IV dilaudid and toradol

I went home Monday. I just had to come home....Wednesday night I had such a severe, different type, of headache. From past experience I knew it was a spinal headache and during the spinal tap they punctured my dura and I was leaking spinal fluid.

I ended up in the ER for over 12 hours. My husband drove he at 4:00 am! A blood patch is needed to fix the puncture hole and stop the headache. A blood patch can be complicated. An anesthesiologist team has to do the procedure. They need to take blood from a clean vein (one that hasn't had an IV or wasn't collapsed) and then they take out 20 ml ( I think) insert it back into the original spinal tap are to hopefully block the leak. It is painful and no pain meds are given.

All that is hard enough BUT I had no veins left. The nurses, while I was in the hospital, literally blew out all my veins. ( u should see my arms. I look like I was beat up!)

The Drs checked my feet, hands, arms and found nothing. I was desperate. If u have Ever had a spinal headache u will understand....the dr found a vein...in my neck...failed the first time but was able to get an IV in my neck and complete the procedure. IT WORKED
In lots of pain from all the needles and spasms in my back from all the injections .

I'm very sorry this is so long but wanted to know if anyone has experienced this.

It was decide that Botox injections would be the next best step to help my migraines and even help my fibro with the muscle tightness in my shoulders and neck ....has anyone tried Botox

Thank you if you read through whole story. So sorry it was so long.

Any input if u have experienced anything similar or the Botox.

Thank you

Dawn

Thank you so much for your reply. I will look into that. The blood patch didn't work so I ended up back in the hospital and they are trying a few medications.

I tried Botox. The first time it helped slightly, the second time I had a horrible headache (not migraine) that lasted almost a week after the injections, and it did not help my migraines at all. The dr. who did the injections told me if it isn't working after 2-3 rounds, it probably won't. I didn't want to spend the money or risk a week of bad headaches, so I didn't try round 3.
Bottom line -- Botox works for some, not others and no way to know in advance. But the big thing to me is all it does is mask the migraine/pain and if it does work you have to keep getting it...I am on a quest to determine WHY I get migraines and fix the root cause. Am currently looking into a program that does just that (but that's a different story).

I've also had the spinal tap headache you refer to, after an epidural gone wrong. It was extremely painful, especially when standing up, but I can tell you it went away within a couple weeks. I hope yours is gone by now and that you are feeling better.
Good luck to you, whatever you decide on the Botox.