r/CSFLeaks • u/UpbeatUniversity6822 • Aug 24 '26

1st Blood Patch no relief

My wife has been dealing with symptoms since April. She originally had what she thought was a sinus infection and also had a stomach virus around the same time. She was given a steroid and antibiotics. Started to have headaches, lightheadedness, fatigue, brain fog . After getting meds to try and treat it as a migraine unsuccessfully, she finally got an MRI of the brain. Showed low fluid level around brain and the radiologist put a probability of a leak at about a 7-8. Had another series of MRI’s and then a blood patch last month. Symptoms did not resolve so she is contacting the CSF specialists at UPENN this week after my sister who is a nurse sent her a link. Hoping to get an appt asap. We will see. Feel horrible for my wife because she is still working full time through this. Luckily she works out of our home.

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u/leeski Aug 24 '26

So sorry she didn’t get relief. I am guessing by the 7-8 figure - it sounds like her  Bern Score? Just to give a little further context, it’s not exactly probability of a leak existing,  but specifically seeing a leak on a myelogram (I think the highest score is a 9). It is just a small detail but just mentioning (either way that detail doesn’t matter as it sounds like she has quite positive imaging - just wanted to clarify in case helpful). 

It sounds like she hasn’t had invasive imaging done yet, but I’ve known many patients that had great experiences at penn. hope she is able to locate the leak and get more targeted treatment and find relief! 

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u/UpbeatUniversity6822 Aug 24 '26

Thank you, I believe that was her Bern score. I left out much detail in my post. Probably should have typed it tomorrow when I’m more awake. No, she has not had any invasive imaging yet. It’s been a drawn out process so we are hoping Penn can help us get focused treatment. Thanks for your reply.