hi elaiza and welcome to NT,

i don't have any experience with CSF leaks either.
i see you have been sent a link already.

the site is great for info and support and i'm sure you'll find both here.

hi quote from a friend re leaks and tick bites (dog groomer ) ???? hope this helps answers your question



For those who don't know my DH's history, his leak started 9/2/2006 when he had a LP done in the ER where he presented with meningitis symptoms. Turns out he'd been bit by a tick (we never knew) and had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. He never had any of the RMSF symptoms, not a single one! He did however have one of the 'complications' of a RMSF infection - bacterial meningitis!

A month earlier my daughter had a tick bite and developed the classic 'bullseye' rash and all the symptoms of Lyme Disease.

Needless to say we are 'tick-shy' to say the least and have treated most of the yard (we live on 12 acres, so can't treat everything), all the animals, and spray when we go in the woods!

Last night I found 3 deer ticks in the nymph stage on my husband, and two other places where it looked as if a tick had been there 'recently' and fell off. We'd gone on a walk through our woods on Monday afternoon, so they'd been feeding about 48 hours ... well past the time needed to 'infect' if they did indeed carry any tick borne diseases. We've frozen the ticks (a good thing to do in case you ever need to 'test' them), taken pictures of where they were located (well, there were two 'indecent' locations that we didn't photo.... ), dated and labeled everything and are in the 2-30 day window of 'did ya get bit by an infectious one or not?' Deer ticks are only infectious in the adult and nymph stages and it's only the females that infect ... if you want some good links, let me know!

Today I called our GP and he's starting DH on a 10-day course of doxycycline which treats about 85% of the types of tick borne bacteria. He has antibodies to RMSF, so he can't get that again, but there are many other nasty potential bacteria.

He is 'supposed' to be having a CT-guided blood patch with Dr. Gray-Leithe at Duke (not scheduled yet as Dr. Schievink just spoke with her and passed on our number), but that's going to have to be out for the next 30 days till we are sure he's 'clear' of any bacteria. Then, if the leak isn't sealed on it's own, and we can't convince her to go fibrin, we will probably have to have every tick borne disease test known to mankind done before considering putting his blood next to an open dura! I emailed Dr. Schievink last night with the information regarding the ticks and our (obvious) concern about blood patching in hopes that he can talk Dr. G-L into fibrin with all things considered....

Why do I share all this, well clearly for support and prayers (Cherry even said she'd be praying for DH when she called this morning)! But also to mention that if you've had a tick bite and you have a leak, to be extra vigilant to watch your bite site! Also, if you have a GP that you trust, take the doxy for 10 days as a prophylactic course! It's 100 mgs doxycycline, 2 times a day for 10 days. Baby stuff as far as antibiotics go!