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migraines after childbirth

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Q: seizures with complicated migraine 11 days after childbirth?
Can someone give me some insight, 18 f gave birth 12 days ago, two days ago, colapsed with seizures and severe migraine heart rate irregular, either way to high or way to low, rushed to er, starts to have seizures regularly, with meds slight drop in the severeity of the migraine, they have ruled out stroke or heart attack, but still have no clue what is causing the seizures or the migraine, supposed to run more test today, including, a brainwave test of sort, another eeg, along with others, can anyone give their insight about what they think is wrong.
also there is no history of prior seizures, either in her family or herself.

A: My first thought is epilepsy..

I just did a little research using google and apparently epilepsy can either be a result of a problem occurring during the pregnancy (eg. bleeding in the brain) or can be worsened (this is assuming the person already had epilepsy) by the fluctuating hormones during pregnancy.

Maybe the person had very mild undiagnosed epilepsy before pregnancy? There are very mild forms that don’t feature a ‘typical’ seizure so are hard to diagnose.

This question is taken from the epilepsy foundation site, I thought it was sort of relevant:

QUESTION:
I began having seizure-like activity after the birth of my only son. I remain conscious, but have severe motor activity and my speech is often impaired. The activity lasts from seconds to 25 minutes. I have yet to be formally diagnosed. Is there a trend or condition where women begin having seizures after childbirth? I did have an epidural.

ANSWER:
I doubt that the epidural had anything to do with your seizures but the pregnancy possibly did. The first step is to get a firm diagnosis. This generally involves seeing a neurologist and getting an EEG and an MRI. You may be having epileptic seizures or even nonepileptic seizures. Nonepileptic seizures can arise with heart rhythm disturbances, hypoglycemia, as a symptom of severe stress or from other causes. If these are epileptic seizures, it is possible that the hormone changes in epilepsy set off an underlying epilepsy predisposition. Also, you must be checked with an MRI of the brain to see if there was any bleeding or other events during pregnancy that might account for the seizures.

Q: Light Sensitivity?
Hi,
Since the birth of my 3rd baby came a bunch of new things like my period got way heavier, and migraine heaches all the time and an extreme sensitivity to light. I have always been sensitive to light but not to this extreme. I have to have my computer’s contrast turned way down along with the brightness, i have to sit at least 25feet from my tv, and i can never turn on my overhead light only a small lamp and going outside, well i can only do that if the sun isn’t out. Some people have told me i have photophobia but i am not afraid of light i get severe migraines from it and it’s the only time i do get a migraine. Has anyone else ever experienced similar things like this after childbirth and is there a cure for light sensitivity or am i just stuck with it?
my user name is just a compilation of some really cool horror movies i like.

A: Well, obviously I am a guy, so the pregnancy thing – not so much. Though, I have recently, in the past year or so, developed an extreme sensitivity to light as well – quite similar to what you claim to be experiencing. I can barely drive, and have to squint one eye to see. Yet, my vision is perfect.

Hopefully someone will answer who can shed some light (hopefully dim light) on the problem.

Also, photophobia is not necessarily a fear of light, but an extreme sensitivity to light.

Q: Tried everything and can’t shake this headache?
My daughter is 5 months old. Before I was pregnant I would get a few headaches here and there and about once a month I’d have a severe migraine. I even blacked out and ended up going the wrong way down a one way road once. Since she’s been about 2 months old I’ve had a bad headache every single day that I can remember with the exception of one or two days. They vary from mild to near-migraine. I’ve tried drinking more water, wearing glasses instead of contacts, getting more sleep, ibuprofen, imitrex, and cutting out caffiene. The only thing I can think of now is a visit to the chiropractor.

As of right now, the only way to stop the headache is to crawl into bed and just pass out for awhile. I recently resumed birth control hoping that would help but it hasn’t yet.

Has this happened to anyone else? Could it be caused from horomones after childbirth? Any suggestions?

P.S. I have called my doctor and I get the usual runaround- get another eye exam, visit the chiropractor, drink more water, etc. Without undergoing extreme tests I am out of options.

Thank you!

A: You might call me crazy – but did you have an epidural? Sometimes your spinal fluid leaks into the epidural space and it causes some scary headaches. Try this: (to determine it’s not something else) drink more water (like you said), when you are in a full blown headache – try green tea with sugar (it’s got a great amount of caffeine in it), and I do recommend visiting the chiropractor because it could be posture. Bending over to change a diaper so often, you tend to slouch a little. If that doesn’t work, tell your doctor to either see you or you’re going into the emergency room. Consistent headaches are a sign of a problem. And if you have a spinal headache, you need immediate attention. (They’ll reopen the epidural space and inject fresh blood to patch the space, it’s called a blood patch). But someone needs to help you asap.

Q: Does the side effects from the Mirena IUD go away over time?
The reason why I am asking is because I had the IUD put in 6 weeks ago and I am going in for my follow-up visit this afternoon. After natural childbirth, insertion was very bearable, bled for a couple weeks and didn’t start again until a few days ago but have been having horrible cramps for the past week. Two days following the insertion I started having constant lower back pain. Over the course of two weeks I developed horrible migraines, acne, rosacea (which I never had before), hot flashes, extreme fatigue, breast tenderness and quiet frankly I’ve become very moody and even have noticed that I tremble like I have eaten. I had blood work done before the IUD insertion and am in tip top shape, so I know that the Mirena is the cause of all this as these are all possible side effects, but what I want to know is do these side effects eventually go away or only get worse? Please tell me your experiences with Mirena. I paid a $1000 for the thing because my insurance doesn’t cover birth control, but I feel Absolutely miserable and look it too. I am willing to stick it out a while longer if the symptoms go away, but if they don’t go away I don’t see the point in staying miserable. If you had Mirena removed, is there a birth control pill you liked that was effective as well as didn’t give you that many side effects? I am not looking for anything like Nuvaring, Implanon or Depo either. Thanks in advance

A: I had mine removed after 13 months of having it, just yesterday.
I already feel more of a clear head, my belly doesn’t feel as puffy as I had been for several months now.
I gained about 30lbs since having had it in, my blood pressure is up now & am turning diabetic.
I spotted steadily for the beginning 6 months, then it tapered off.
I still got my periods lighter but instead of on my normal cycle they were every 3 weeks.
I bled alot often during or after sex.
I had lower abdominal pain for several months & (oddly) since I have had it removed I haven’t felt that pain again.
I am going to ask my doctor when I go in today for a pill that has low progesterone levels in it as that tends to trigger migraines for me.

Q: does anyone think this may be lyme disease?? i’ve been tested but negative.. but thats common i am told????!?!
i posted this question about a month ago.. and since, new symptoms have occured. my thyroid levels/blood/urine work is normal. and im not pregnant

i started having these symptoms after childbirth/appendicitas (2 1/2 yrs ago): cold sores, headaches, eyes hurt, burning scalp, dizzy, hot/cold RED feet and hands, shortness of breath, extremely tired, chills, sweats, can’t regulate body temperature, angry, insomnia, swollen glands, phleghm. new symptoms: very painful joints, constant nausea, impatience, extreme back pain, irritability, heart racing, headaches (almost migraine) i wake up and feel 90 yrs old and like i have the flu every day, for about a month.. but it gets worse every day.

also when i pee, i feel like its still feels full, when i have sex it feels full. i went to a urology doctor and he said that nothing’s wrong when i know there is.. its not a shy bladder, i’ve never had any problem before. AND IT DOESNT HURT. ITS NOT A UTI OR YEAST INFECTION. and i do kegals non stop
i forgot to add that the other new symptom is that i breastfeed my baby until he was a running 1 yr old. and sometimes i still feel like milk is coming in when its not and they are very swollen and hurt. but i KNOW i’m not pregnant (i dont have sex with this issue im dealing with.) please no funny answers.
my kid is almost 3 now. so it should all be dried up and everything, even colostrum, right?

A: It could possibly be Lyme. Some of the symptoms might also be from what are called co-infections (other diseases carried by ticks which can be transmitted along with Lyme.) You need to be evaluated by someone who really understands the complex issues involved with tick-borne diseases.

If you were tested for Lyme, it was probably the ELISA test, which is known to have a very high false negative rate. There are other ways of evaluating Lyme–though I don’t recommend the spinal tap that an earlier poster mentioned. Lyme doesn’t typically show up in spinal fluid, so if they test you and don’t find Lyme there, it doesn’t really mean anything.

I suggest you educate yourself about this disease, and recommend you join the conversation at www.lymenet.org.

Good sources of info about Lyme disease:
http://www.canlyme.com
http://www.lymeinfo.net
http://www.lymediseaseassociation.org
http://www.ilads.org
http://www.betterhealthguy.com
http://www.publichealthalert.com
http://www.freewebs.com/teenswithlyme

http://www.lymetimes.org

Q: How does labor progress when attempting a vbac?
5 years ago, I had my son. I was in labor for 16 hours, dilated fully, did all the pushing…
However, his shoulder got stuck, and because I was still pushing, I ended up with a placental abruption and had to have an emergency Csection due to hemorrhaging.

My OB (a different doctor) has thoroughly reviewed my history and says he feels confident I can have a VBAC this time around. I’m due with my second baby in 10 weeks.

However, during our childbirth preparation class, my husband asked the nurse her opinion, and she said it may be possible, but more than likely, I’ll have another CSection.

So now, I’m kind of scared. I know that, for second babies, birth tends to be easier and faster, but I don’t know how that works if I didn’t actually deliver the first baby vaginally. I asked the same nurse, and she says that since the baby didn’t actually come out that way, I shouldn’t expect this labor to be any easier. Essentially, it’ll be like being in labor for the first time.

So. Now I’m confused and a little scared. I had horrible, awful migraines for MONTHS after my first birth because of leaking spinal fluid, and I’m really debating getting another epidural. If this labor would be easier, I’d just try to go without, but if what she says is true, and not only will labor be just like the first time, but I could also end up getting a csection anyway, then I might as well get it, just in case.

I don’t know. Does anyone have any experience that would either support or refute the nurse’s opinions?

A: Every labor and every delivery are 2 separate events -

Just because you had a C the first time doesn’t mean at all that your VBAC will result in your having another C

I had an emergency C with my first and VBAC/natural deliveries with the next 3 – to include delivering twins naturally

If labor doesn’t start naturally you will have another C – they can’t medically induce after you’ve had one

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