Your first epidural.

[badasshairday]

What was it like? As an M1, it seems insane to stick a needle in between a patient's vertebrae and getting though the ligamentous structures all the way to the dura mater.

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[Noyac]

I wet tapped my first one. He was a 70 yo vet at the VA for a TKA. No PDPH.

 

[isoman2000]

wet tapped my first 20 Y/o labor, she had one hell of a headache.

 

[Bertelman]

Wet Tap has got to be my favorite medical slang.

"I wet tapped her- she never complained of a headache, though."

First epidural went swell. I tend to always do acceptably well the first couple of times for anything new. It's usually the 3rd or 4th time, when I try to do it my way, when I begin to have problems.

 

[KungPOWChicken]

I wet-tapped her twice in the same night and she did have a headache after that

 

[lfesiam]

I wet-tapped her twice in the same night and she did have a headache after that

M4 here. Ditto, Wet tapped first one.

Stony brook and Vermont has some interesting research into detecting wet taps.....One using electrophysiology, the other using the good old biochemistry methods

 

[Code99]

The first time alone I wet taped a 20 in labor...I called my attending went up a level or two and he also got wet tap ...she was so shallow and I didnt feel the ligament...she got a headach I would be surprised if she didnt...

 

[pgg]

Count me in on the wet tapped the first one crowd. Zero since though.

Now, having said that, my next one will be a wet tap.

 

[proman]

Me too, she flinched from a contraction and backed into the needle. Was the wife of one of our GI fellows, had a headache.

 

[usnavdoc]

If you havent wet tapped someone you havent done enough. I never believe the folks that say they have never done it.

 

[jetproppilot]

What was it like? As an M1, it seems insane to stick a needle in between a patient's vertebrae and getting though the ligamentous structures all the way to the dura mater.

Sad...read your post and honestly dont remember the first time I yielded a Tuohy.

 

[coprolalia]

I remember my first epidural. No wet tap, but it took me like 25 minutes to put it in... advance 0.1 milimeter.... test syringed.... 0.1 millimeter advance... test syringe....

-copro

 

[DET0897]

Went nearly 1.5 years, and scores of epidurals before my first wet tap. Of course, it happened in a laboring pediatric attending who is (was?) a close personal friend of our family. I called it a combined spinal/epidural catheter. Worked great.

12 hours after delivery, headache galore. Blood patch thru epidural cath, problem solved.

 

[Tenesma]

i remember my first few epidurals.... the attending kept on saying: "feel the anatomy with the tip of the needle"....

unfortunately before doing those epidurals i had checked out the anatomy on Netter's Atlas and was convinced the epidural space would be 5 cm from the skin... so i had this mental block about advancing the needle beyond 5cm...

little did i realize what a few layers of fat can mean when it comes to advancing the needle.