If you had a failed epidural/spinal

[bananapancakes]

Were you given any explanation for why it didn't work? If it didn't work once is that an indication that it will never work? Have you had one failed epidural/spinal and then one that worked?

This is one of my questions for my m/w as I was originally given a spinal but when they poked me with the needle or whatever they do, I just about jumped off the table. I was then put under general. For about a month after L was born, I had a spot on my butt that was completely numb. It was like all the freezing went to one spot or something.

[game blouses]

Mine only worked for half my body, so I still felt everything on the other side. Their explanation was "The anesthesiologist had to rush off to a C section, so the needle was probably put in cockeyed." He later came back to fix it and was annoyed that I was complaining about an epidural that was "pretty much fine." (It didn't get fixed.)

[motzie]

My first epidural worked, but it was too late and they ended up just giving me the bolus and then turning it off so I could push.

My second worked initially, for a few minutes. My legs went completely numb, but then the pain came back in my back. We called the anesthesiologist back who gave me a shot of something else in the epi, which also only worked momentarily. They just said the drugs don't take for everyone. They said sometimes it's a timing thing.

[justjen]

My first worked perfectly.

For my second, I was apparently progressing too fast. They even gave me 2, but it didn't help. After labor, though, my legs were pretty much numb for hours.

[Ashley&Scott]

My first epi didn't work, the anesthesiologist said I had "bad landmarks". He re-tried about an hour later in a higher position & it worked. 

[glitzy07]

My first epidural worked, but wore off only on my left side after about 5 hours. We "topped it off" and it worked again, but wore off again on my left side.

When it was determined that I was going to need a C-section, they were adding more drugs to the epi and they never "took" on my left side. When they poked me to see if I could still feel, I couldn't feel anything on my right but everything on my left. The next suggestion was to put me under general, but I refused and told them to just go ahead and cut. It was painful as hell, but eventually adrenaline and/or the drugs kicked in and I stopped feeling everything once C was out and they were stitching me back up.

ETA: Nobody gave me any explanation as to why.  I did ask about it if I have to have a RCS and the OB said that a spinal would probably fix that problem?

[andi]

I had a student do mine, and they told me after that I had a slightly curved spine, coupled with the fact that I couldn't sit still long enough for her because I was having hard contractions. The only thing the epidural did was give me horrible spinal headaches for a week. She did say it could work perfectly next time, especially if I could get it early enough.

[magpie]

I am still unsure if mine worked that well (should it be obvious)? It seemed to work at first, but I was in labor forever, so maybe it wore off? They "topped it off" and the contractions didn't hurt at all, but I swear, pushing/stretching out feeling was the second most painful thing I've ever experienced. The most painful thing was right after pushing, when my placenta did not come out and the doctor had to go in and grab it by hand. That hurt so, so much. They also topped off the epi before that too. Should I have felt these pains with a successful epi? They kept saying that my epi was "perfect" before all the pushing and stuff.

[kaycee]

Both of mine were given late. The first one never did anything, so they just turned it off and had me push. The second one worked, but they only gave me the initial dose and it was too late to put the bag of meds on. I think it is anesthesiologist dependent too. The second time he spent time and talked to me about my first experience and worked really hard to do it to work better.

[crazygame]

My epidural for my first labor didn't take nearly as well as the one for my second labor. I don't know if I would say that it didn't work, but I was in a ton more pain through the pushing process with my first child. With my second, I was all "oh, so this is how it should have been."

[Deleted]

Neither of mine worked properly and I was told after the second one that they think that the space in my spine where the line is fed is too small so they couldn't set it properly. After the first one I got a traction headache and I had a horribly sore back for about 10 days after the second one (this one didn't even work during labor).

[ewall]

Mine worked initially, but then stopped working on one side. The anesthesiologist attempted to fix it (?) but I still felt all of my back labor. I was never given any explanation other than "it should be working." It wasn't until he cranked up the dose for my c-section that I finally felt relief. Even then, I could still move my legs and everyone in the OR was like, "Huh, that's weird." Thankfully did not feel any of my c-section!

[mandapanda18]

mine wouldn't take at all, I ended up with a C-section under general. My goals was to go med-free, so it wasn't a thought until it became and emergency! I hope to VBAC with hypothetical child #2, don't want to have to have another kid asleep

[dulcemariamar]

It did not take. I wasn't really given a reason why. It seems that there was something wrong and the medicine wasn't flowing correctly. The midwife just turned it off. She was really into natural birth so it seemed that she wasn't interested in fixing the issue.

[ewall]

Oct 12, 2015 11:12:08 GMT -5 dulcemariamar said:

It did not take. I wasn't really given a reason why. It seems that there was something wrong and the medicine wasn't flowing correctly. The midwife just turned it off. She was really into natural birth so it seemed that she wasn't interested in fixing the issue.

Oh I would have been so pissed!

[rugbywife]

Oct 12, 2015 10:57:51 GMT -5 crazygame said:

My epidural for my first labor didn't take nearly as well as the one for my second labor. I don't know if I would say that it didn't work, but I was in a ton more pain through the pushing process with my first child. With my second, I was all "oh, so this is how it should have been."

This is essentially my story. I knew my first one didn't work because people spoke about sleeping though transition - LOLOLOLOL. NOPE.  Except then I had my second and it worked and I totally slept through a ton of it.

I never got an explanation.  The second doc asked me if I had told my first doc about my scoliosis and I said yes, and it's like, OVERLY noticeable, but I never found out why the first one didn't work. 

[satsuma]

Oct 12, 2015 10:04:19 GMT -5 glitzy07 said:

My first epidural worked, but wore off only on my left side after about 5 hours. We "topped it off" and it worked again, but wore off again on my left side.

When it was determined that I was going to need a C-section, they were adding more drugs to the epi and they never "took" on my left side. When they poked me to see if I could still feel, I couldn't feel anything on my right but everything on my left. The next suggestion was to put me under general, but I refused and told them to just go ahead and cut. It was painful as hell, but eventually adrenaline and/or the drugs kicked in and I stopped feeling everything once C was out and they were stitching me back up.

ETA: Nobody gave me any explanation as to why.  I did ask about it if I have to have a RCS and the OB said that a spinal would probably fix that problem?

Damn, I don't think there's a gif to be found that could sum up my reaction to this. Kudos to you. I know someone who had to be put under after her epi failed and she ended up interviewing anesthesiologists for her RCS. 

[dulcemariamar]

Oct 12, 2015 11:16:19 GMT -5 ewall said:

Oct 12, 2015 11:12:08 GMT -5 dulcemariamar said:

It did not take. I wasn't really given a reason why. It seems that there was something wrong and the medicine wasn't flowing correctly. The midwife just turned it off. She was really into natural birth so it seemed that she wasn't interested in fixing the issue.

Oh I would have been so pissed!

The midwife was the one who gave us the tour of the hospital. When I met her, I asked lots of questions about natural birth because hospitals in the area were not well known for having great practices in terms of natural births and/or avoiding interventions.

So she remembered me when I was there giving birth. And she was like, don't worry. You wanted to give birth without the epidural anyway. But by then it had been 24+ hours since my water broke so I was tired and was nervous about ending up with a c-section.

Since I got the epidural, I had to get pitocin. It wasnt a horrible decision because I was able to finally dilate.

 

[mlvmd]

My first epidural worked for about 30 minutes and then just didnt anymore. I ended up with a c section and they did something at that point to numb me, not sure why they weren't able to do anything before.

For my RCS I got a spinal and had no issues.

[glitzy07]

Oct 12, 2015 11:19:54 GMT -5 satsuma said:

Oct 12, 2015 10:04:19 GMT -5 glitzy07 said:

My first epidural worked, but wore off only on my left side after about 5 hours. We "topped it off" and it worked again, but wore off again on my left side.

When it was determined that I was going to need a C-section, they were adding more drugs to the epi and they never "took" on my left side. When they poked me to see if I could still feel, I couldn't feel anything on my right but everything on my left. The next suggestion was to put me under general, but I refused and told them to just go ahead and cut. It was painful as hell, but eventually adrenaline and/or the drugs kicked in and I stopped feeling everything once C was out and they were stitching me back up.

ETA: Nobody gave me any explanation as to why.  I did ask about it if I have to have a RCS and the OB said that a spinal would probably fix that problem?

Damn, I don't think there's a gif to be found that could sum up my reaction to this. Kudos to you. I know someone who had to be put under after her epi failed and she ended up interviewing anesthesiologists for her RCS. 

Haha, I am the exact opposite of hard core and my pain threshold is low, but I guess I was just determined.     

[whiskeyandwine]

I had three, over the 24+ hours I was in the hospital for. None lasted. There was no real explanation but the hospital was doing a study on why some women have this issue (intense pain in between my shoulder blades as the epi wore off), so I am participating in that.

I have no idea what will happen if I have another. I guess I will ask at some point, but I may be happier just believing it would work. Lol

[babyrn]

With DD mine worked for about 30 min and then stopped completely. They came to bolus it and nothing. So they replaced it and the same thing happened, it worked for about 30 min again and then stopped, they came to bolus again and it was not working at all. The explanation I got was sometimes these things just happen. I was at a 9 at that point so they wouldn't replace it again and I "got" to have the natural birth I didn't want, lol. They said next time to have them put it higher but that makes me nervous.

[Deleted]

My first worked fine but started to wear off by the end so I felt a lot during pushing but comfortable the rest of the time. That was no one's fault. It was the most complicated labor ever no one could predict.

My second half worked. I felt it all once I was fully dialated. Basically, the dr. thought I had more time so he was holding off on giving me the epi. By the time it "kicked in" it was too late. I didn't feel as much as I did the first time and would have been a lot worse without it, so I can't complain.

My third was a dream. Worked perfectly.

[sparkythelawyer]

Oct 12, 2015 10:51:55 GMT -5 magpie said:

I am still unsure if mine worked that well (should it be obvious)? It seemed to work at first, but I was in labor forever, so maybe it wore off? They "topped it off" and the contractions didn't hurt at all, but I swear, pushing/stretching out feeling was the second most painful thing I've ever experienced. The most painful thing was right after pushing, when my placenta did not come out and the doctor had to go in and grab it by hand. That hurt so, so much. They also topped off the epi before that too. Should I have felt these pains with a successful epi? They kept saying that my epi was "perfect" before all the pushing and stuff.

My OB's office would have called that "perfect" because they wanted me to feel the pushing because they wanted me to be able to direct when I needed to start/stop, so, I think so?

[roo54]

Both of mine failed. I could move my legs, and transfer myself from bed to operating tables. I didn't want to get one for my second birth, after it didn't work for my first, but the ob told me to give it a try, and sometimes they don't work, but other times they do. With DD1, I could transfer myself from bed to operating table, and everyone was amazed I could do that. This one didn't work either. They tried to give me extra juice, but it did nothing. I could feel everything, the drs didn't believe me. When they poured water on me to clean me up afterwards I commented that it was really cold, then they started to believe me.

[geek96]

With DS only one side was numb. They took it out and redid it. They topped it off a bunch of times then cut me off and told me I had more drugs than everybody in l&d combined that day. I felt some relief but never felt complete relief.

With DD the anesthesiologist told me the entry was shallow. This one had to be replaced also but I had more relief. The only explanation I got was that it doesn't provide the same amount of relief for everyone.

[babyrn]

Oct 12, 2015 10:51:55 GMT -5 magpie said:

The most painful thing was right after pushing, when my placenta did not come out and the doctor had to go in and grab it by hand..

They had to do this for me too, with no epi working. It was so awful. And then I was hemorrhaging so she thought there was some retained placenta so the Dr was all up in there "pumpkin scooping" my insides with her hand. They didn't find any retained placenta but lots of tiny lacerations and she needed to do some internal stitching way up in there as well. I almost passed out from the pain and finally they gave me a shot of fentanyl. Which didn't do much but make me throw up

I really pray any future deliveries go smoother! An elective c section sounds nice sometimes, lol.

[dulcemariamar]

Oct 12, 2015 13:39:23 GMT -5 babyrn said:

Oct 12, 2015 10:51:55 GMT -5 magpie said:

The most painful thing was right after pushing, when my placenta did not come out and the doctor had to go in and grab it by hand..

They had to do this for me too, with no epi working. It was so awful. And then I was hemorrhaging so she thought there was some retained placenta so the Dr was all up in there "pumpkin scooping" my insides with her hand. They didn't find any retained placenta but lots of tiny lacerations and she needed to do some internal stitching way up in there as well. I almost passed out from the pain and finally they gave me a shot of fentanyl. Which didn't do much but make me throw up

I really pray any future deliveries go smoother! An elective c section sounds nice sometimes, lol.

And getting the stitches. Horrible. I still cringe when I remember it.

[katiecj6]

I was told that I progressed too fast for it to take effect. Who knows. It sucked. Lol.

[ava]

My epi only took on my Right side and the anesthesiologist said that it was common for that to happen. She propped me up on a bunch of pillows so my right hip was higher than the left, and within a few min my left side was numb too. I don't remember the reason she gave me as to why that worked.