TO ENTER YOUR STORY CLICK THE SUBMIT  BUTTON ON TOP Or if you prefer just EMAIL it. STORIES: My story Epidural horror story Horrible Experience             My Story Marc Leroux Epidural overdose experience This is the series of events that happened on February 7, 1998.  at 7:00am my wife, who was then 22 years old, was at 40-1/2 weeks gestation. She was induced and given an epidural. The dosage was 16cc of .5% bupivacaine per hour increased to 26cc of .5%. The labor progressed to 5cm within the first few hours. At this point the epidural still wasn't working and was increased to 26cc of .5%marcaine per hour. by 15:30 my wife had not progressed passed the 5cm and was to have a cesarean section. A top up of 15cc was given at 15:50. At this point she started having a seizure, then fell unconscious. She was given midazolam to stop the seizure, then put on oxygen. After resuscitation she given general anesthetic for the c-section which was performed at 16:17. This is what I know about the dosages for bupivacaine. First of all, a dose between 8 and 12cc of .5% should last between 90 and 180min (90 for 8cc and 180 for 12cc) This dose if for Vaginal delivery. For a planned 'C'-Section the dose should be between 20 and 24cc of .5% and should last between 90 and 180min. My wife was given 16cc per hour to begin and upped to 26cc per hour. My wife had the epidural for 8-1/2 hours. this meant that she received a minimum of 16cc times 8=128cc plus a top up of 15cc which make the total = 142cc of .5% BUPIVACAINE. she should have gotten the following maximum. 8-1/2 hours = 510min divided by 180(duration of a dose) this gives you a total of 2.83 doses, which = 34cc of .5% bupivacaine. As you can see my wife received 4.17 times the MAX dose. It seems to me that the doctor gave my wife the c-section dose throughout the day instead of the vaginal delivery dose. During the seizure the fetal heart rate dropped to significantly, and when I re-entered the room it was 78, which was half it's normal rate of 156. Also, my wife needed oxygen. The time between my wife's seizure and the time my daughter was born was 27 minutes. My daughter's name is Briana. She is now 3-1/2 years old. she takes steps, doesn't talk or understand. she has the mental capacity of a 10month old. Her cerebral palsy was diagnosed only a few months ago by the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children.   Epidural Horror Story   I was barely 19 when my first son was born. I was incredibly ignorant even after 6 weeks of Lamaze and a husband who worked in labor and delivery at the hospital where I was to deliver. It seemed that our best option to avoid a long painful labor (which was all I could imagine at the time) was to have the epidural right away. So after arriving at the hospital with barely discernible contractions, I had my epidural at 5cm, as planned. It was then that things went from bad to worse. The epidural caused me to stop breathing and I had an ambu bag for over an hour. It was a nightmare, being totally conscious, yet paralyzed from the neck down. All I could do was blink and I didn't do that for fear that I would never open my eyes again! In the end, the problem corrected itself, although it was incredible that there was absolutely nothing these medical "experts" could do to undo the damage that the epidural had caused. It wasn't until 2 years later that the full impact of how near death I had been really hit me. By then I was pregnant again. I was terrified. I was determined to have my tubes tied after this birth to avoid any more of these misadventures. But things turned out differently as I gave birth to this son with no drugs. I had the tubal done 3 days post partum, feeling like I had just been lucky. But as the weeks went by and the realization of how different my mothering experience was this time compared to the last "delivery", I began to question the wisdom of the tubal. I began to research and to see that not experiencing the "birth" with the first due to the epidural and its paralytic effect had changed something fundamental in my relationship with my son. The next time, everything was better and I felt like I had accomplished something important.  Some things don't have to be exactly alike to bring about understanding. I may not have a scar in my uterus, but my first birth was as close to a c/section as I would care to be. And I do have a scar on my belly because when my second was 2, I had the tubal reversed. The surgery to tie the tubes is simple, the surgery to repair them is major. I never knew a body could hurt so much! I had a new respect for women who had surgery and had to care for a newborn while dealing with that kind of pain.  So I will not pretend that I have walked in your shoes, but I have certainly shared some of your feelings. I have felt the loss, the uncertainty (my first was pulled out with forceps, could I really get one out on my own?) the overwhelming anger that something precious was taken from me. I remember my first son's birth like it was a video, of someone else. I could have been in the Caribbean for all the help I was! We don't need to hurt as bad as someone else to see and sense that their pain is great.  I once heard a psychologist say that an experience isn't traumatic so much for the actual events as it is for the perceptions of the one who experienced it. It isn't the details that hurt so much, it is the sense that it was beyond our control and beyond our expectations and beyond our ability to cope. What is awful for one of us may be no big deal for someone else.  I have had seven wonderful births since that first nightmare. I have grown in unimaginable ways as I learned that I was capable of birthing my own children and being a good mother after. It was a long slow process and each one has brought out something new. I had a friend ask me once if having so many made it worry free. I said no, it just changes the worries. But fear and worry do not scare me the same way anymore. I am not afraid to be afraid anymore. I know that I can handle my life. I wish I had known that sooner.  I hope this isn't too long and rambly, but I just wanted you all to understand where I am coming from. I want to help women avoid the trauma the first time so they don't have to go through what so many of us have to go through now. We all deserve better.    Eight Hours of Torture - Horrible Epidural Experience Ends in Cesarean   I've been reading messages for about a month now and figured I should say hello. I've already learned a great deal of information. My son weighed 9lbs 3oz and was my first baby. He is doing great and is a sweet baby. I was very traumatized by the birth and pregnancy, which I will attempt to express.  First of all I changed doctors at week 16 of my pregnancy because one of the doctors in the practice was rude to me and my husband. We went from a group of three men to a group with 2 women and 2 men. My primary care Dr in the new group was a very young woman.  I started having trouble in my pregnancy around week 19. I had terrible sharp pains in my left side that would wake me up at night. Dr. said they were round ligament pains. They were really bad until about week 24, then got a little better, only to return again around week 32. From week 32 until my c-section they were awful. I could not lay down on either side. Sometimes I would just pace around the house all night. One night I was sitting on the edge of the sofa and dozed off only to fall face forward into the coffee table. I became very sleep deprived. Called my Dr several times and got many possible explanations i.e. round ligament, kink in colon, maybe even contractions, always saying that the pains would go away after the baby was born and that they were NORMAL. When I expressed my concern over them hurting during labor she said they wouldn't. After all she had these annoying round ligament pains with her first pregnancy. Needless to say all I wanted when I got to the hospital was an epidural or any pain medicine (first huge mistake!).  When we got to the hospital at 5:30 am (labored a whopping 2 hours at home) I was a "3 plus" and 75% effaced. At my last Dr visit one week earlier I was at a 3 and 70% effaced so not much change. After an hour I was at a four so the nurse called my Dr and she said to keep me. She order an enema which previously she had said sometimes gets things moving but it would be up to me. This was the beginning of NOTHING WAS UP TO ME. The enema nearly killed me by making my side hurt so bad I almost threw up and passed out. All this on top of the contractions.  The Dr finally came at 9am broke my water, put an internal baby monitor on, and said I was at a 4 plus. My contractions had slowed after the enema. Imagine that.  I asked my Dr about an epidural and she said maybe in an hour - that I wasn't in enough pain yet (which was probably true). After about 30 minutes my contractions got stronger and in comes my l&d nurse to put in an internal monitor for contractions. She nearly sent me flying out of the bed with this supposedly simple procedure. After she was finished the baby had a new position-in my throat. I got mad and asked for stadol. Big mistake. It really made me dizzy and unable to focus.  L&D nurse came back shortly to let me know they needed to get a bunch of fluids in me to start the epidural so they could start pitocin. Next thing I know the anesthesiologist was there to do the epidural. This is where things really go wrong. Over the next 2-3 hours he stuck me at least 6 times all resulting in 2 different epidurals that never numbed anything but my right leg. They make your husband leave the room during the epidural so he was in and out during this time. The anesthesiologist talked rudely about me the whole time like I wasn't even in the room. He would jab the needle around in me like he was looking for a vein. They made me curl up in a ball on my left side which already hurt even though I asked if I could sit up for the procedure.  During this 2-3 hour period I just cried through the pitocin contractions and the pain in my side. My nurse was irritated at me the whole time for not relaxing during contractions (I tried to explain that my side hurt but finally gave up and just shut my eyes, cried and hyperventilated) They would not let me sit up. I also was given Demerol during this time. Finally my dr called anesthesiology (probably with c-section in mind). The next rude anesthesiologist came up and did an epidural on the first try with me sitting up. It was working within five minutes and I had calmed down. The nurse cranked the pitocin back up and guess what. The baby's heart rate dropped into the 60's with the very next contraction. It did come back up over a hundred ( husband is not sure how high) but that was the end of my labor. Via phone conversation with my nurse the dr said let's section her. My dr never spoke to us about it. My thought was how convenient now that the epidural is working they can finally do a c-section. At least they didn't want to put me out.  The dx was fetal distress and ftp. I never made it past 6 cm. My son was born at 1:36 pm, after 8 hours of torture at the hospital. His apgars were 8/9. When getting ready to sew me up my dr said she was going to remove my pain for me. It was a tennis ball size dermoid cyst on my left ovary. It had twisted it and was cutting of the blood supply to the ovary (have I said this was painful?).  I was thankful to be alive for a few hours (the anesthesiologist made me fear for my life along with the drugs). However, by the next morning all the events started setting in and when i complained to my dr guess what reply i got. Yes, "You're healthy and the baby's healthy etc. blah blah blah." At my 2 week incision check I got the "You need to put this behind you and get over it." Well, 11 weeks later it is still fresh in my memory. She has gotten me a referral for counseling but I have not gone due to breastfeeding and lack of faith in health care professionals.