SAH following surgery, epidural, or giving birth

[jhelms]

My SAH came three days after having a c-section for my second child. In one of my many trips back to the ER, I was told by one of the nurses, that a woman had come through the ER a week prior to me, totally unresponsive, and had had a SAH. She didn't think that she had made it. She also had just had a baby a few day prior.

I was wondering if there are any similar stories on here. At the time of mine, Brett Michaels had had a SAH following a surgery he had. He also has received an epidural, and I have heard of a few others that suffered a SAH after an epidural.

When I have had any medical procedure since, I have to tell them about my SAH and the history behind it. The nurses always ask if I received an epidural and when I reply yes, they always make a noise of understanding, as if the epidural caused my SAH.

Could this be true? It has always been my gut feeling it did. One thing is for sure, I had no signs of any AVM's. It seemed to have happened with no cause or reason, and it cleared with no medical intervention.

Any body else experience this?

[Louise]

Hopefully someone will come along with a reply I don't know though.

Mines happened with no cause or for no reason although in my case I was having headaches for a while before hand, like you just one of those un-explained things that happen.

[Skippy]

Hey there

I'd had an epidural but that was 9 years prior to my SAH so whether they're related or not I really couldn't say. But if epidurals cause SAH's does that mean that everyone who has had an epidural should have had an SAH or that all SAH sufferers would have had an epidural???

[Wem]

Hi,

Epidurals are becoming the anaesthetic of choice for major surgery in the UK. They are believed to carry less risk than general anaesthetic, so not sure the risk of an SAH as a result of epidural will be particularly high?

Guess as with everything it will depend largely on the medical history of the individual patient?

Wem

[jess]

I had never had an epidural however with my first child after my sah I did. Jess.xxx

[jhelms]

Thanks for the feed back, guys!

Skippy~ I don't think so. They are so common here in the US. But, with that being said, inserting a needle into ones spine, there is a very small margin of error. I wonder if it has anything to do with going past the epidural space and puncturing or injecting the medicine into the wrong space. Also, could it be a bad run of that spinal epidural medicine?

I just have a lot of questions, and I have had 4 years to ponder them. I am finally in a group of people who all have SAH or other brain bleed in common. We all have the basic recovery story and side effects, and out of my own curiosity, I wanted to see if anyone shared this part of my story.

[Gill C]

I had an epidural when Nathan was born with no problems. My sah was 4 years later.

[SarahLou]

I had an epidural in 2006, to help with pain relief following transplant. The epidural didn't work though.

My SAH was in 2010.

You raise an interesting question...

SL Xx

[iola]

I was told by my doctor when I asked why I had a non-aneurysmal SAH, he said it is most likely a weakened superficial artery that ruptured and obliterated itself and I was most likely born with it and it just took now to rupture. I was not doing anything but sitting.

iola