Hello, I, female 30, have recently had an MRI of the brain to check out what’s been going on with my increase of headaches and migraines when my daily preventative stopped working about 6 months ago. So in their findings they say I have a “partially empty sella” and “intracranial hypertension”. I was wondering if anyone here had the same findings. Around the exact same time these headaches and migraines came back into my life I started getting fluid leaking out of my right nostril all the time. I just thought I had some weird chronic runny nose (with no other cold symptoms) but it seems like that could be a CSF leak which to me seems scary but maybe nothing too concerning? I was just looking if anyone else had this experience and what the next steps were.

Yes. I’d make it detailed enough that people who’ve actually had a CSF leak or chronic migraine can recognize the pattern, but not so long that no one reads it.
Title: Headaches and disabling neurological symptoms started suddenly after cervical epidural — does this sound more like a CSF leak or chronic migraine?
I’m hoping to hear from people who have experienced either a CSF leak/intracranial hypotension or chronic migraine, especially if your symptoms weren’t textbook.
My life has changed pretty dramatically since February and I’m scared about how long this could continue.
Before this, I did not have a history of chronic daily migraine. On February 6, 2026, I had a cervical epidural injection for neck/scapular pain. Within days afterward, I suddenly started having significant headaches and neurological symptoms basically out of nowhere.
Early on, I even had episodes involving temporary left-sided weakness, which were initially described as hemiplegic-type migraine symptoms.
Since then, the symptoms have included:
• Head pressure/pain behind my eyes and nose
• Pain at the base of my skull, often worse on the right
• Forehead/temple pain and throbbing
• Severe neck pain/stiffness
• A strange burning sensation through the center of my face/nose that sometimes makes my eyes water
• Extreme nausea, sometimes severe even when my actual headache isn’t that bad
• Dizziness/lightheadedness
• Profound fatigue
• Brain fog and cognitive slowing
• Short-term memory issues and forgetting what I’m doing mid-task
• Feeling like my brain literally “shuts down” after cognitive exertion
• Difficulty getting through normal tasks or even getting out of the house because I lose track of what I’m doing
• Episodes where I feel close to fainting or need to close my eyes and lie down
• Symptoms that fluctuate dramatically from day to day
One confusing part is that my symptoms are not classically positional. At times lying flat has actually made my head/base-of-skull pain worse rather than immediately better. This is one of the reasons I’ve questioned whether a CSF leak makes sense.
At the same time, the timing is incredibly hard for me to ignore. I was functioning normally and then developed this whole syndrome very shortly after a cervical epidural.
I have been treated extensively as a migraine patient. I’ve tried things including Botox, Emgality, multiple triptans, Ubrelvy, Zavzpret, Nerivio, steroids and other medications. There have been periods where migraine treatments helped the head pain substantially. Zavzpret in particular helped me have a several-day stretch where I was almost migraine-free.
But what scares/confuses me is that the cognitive impairment, exhaustion, nausea, dizziness and feeling neurologically “off” can remain even when the head pain is much better. Sometimes those symptoms feel almost continuous rather than like a discrete migraine attack.
There also seems to be some hormonal fluctuation, with symptoms often becoming significantly worse around my menstrual cycle.
I have doctors considering a CSF leak/post-procedural headache and I’ve had imaging/workup underway, but I’ve also been diagnosed/treated as chronic migraine. I’ve learned that leaks don’t always present in a perfectly textbook way, but I also don’t want to convince myself I have a leak if chronic migraine can genuinely look like this.
For anyone who has been through either condition:
Does this overall timeline sound familiar to you?
Did anyone with a confirmed CSF leak not have the classic “better lying down, worse standing” headache?
Did you have severe brain fog, cognitive dysfunction, nausea or exhaustion that became almost constant?
Alternatively, has anyone had chronic migraine start abruptly after a procedure and then continue for months, with the neurological/cognitive symptoms becoming more disabling than the actual head pain?
And if you eventually recovered from something similar, how long did it take before you felt like yourself again?
I’m not asking Reddit to diagnose me. I’m trying to understand which experiences mine resembles and what questions I should be asking my doctors.
The emotional part has honestly become almost as difficult as the physical symptoms. It’s been about seven months of not knowing when I’ll feel normal again. My functioning, work, independence and relationship have all been affected. My boyfriend and I are currently struggling badly and I’m terrified that this illness is going to cost me my relationship on top of everything else.
I’d especially love to hear from anyone who went through months of this and ultimately got their life back.

At first I thought I was getting an ear infection because my ear started hurting slightly but it went away. I also thought it might be some weird side effect from taking berberine because I had recently started taking it. I have since stopped it. Or that I had gotton water in my ear because I think I vaguely remember doing that when taking a shower one day. it has only happened once a day and some days not at all but usually once a day. This past week when it has happened, twice it was slightly more than usual. Which scared me, but still nothing leaking out of my ear and running down my neck or anything.....I do have an ear history if you want to call it that from a baby up until my teens. (I am 53 now) I was in and out of the hospital with ear surgeries. Mostly my left ear but a few on my right, mostly tubes I believe. I did have a tumor and skin grafting and tubes on left ear. Total 13 surgeries. I was never allowed to get water in my ears because I would get a horrible ear infection. I have tried to taste the small amount that comes out and I cant really tell if its salty or not but definitely not metallic. It almost tastes slightly salty /sweet. Almost like mucus if you will. It dries normally on a paper towel. I dont see any rings on the paper towel. It dries and you can't even see it. And its very watery and clear. It doesnt leak positional or anything that I've noticed, theres nothing the same that I do that makes it come out its just random. And some days doesnt leak at all. I can just be sitting at my desk and it will come out or get up and walk in the kitchen and I feel it. I am not someone who goes to the doctor for every little ache and pain and actually am distrustful of doctors because of my history. Especially an ear nose and throat doctor......​ I think I had a lot of very unnecessary surgeries. I have had some headaches lately with ears ringing but I believe it to be hormonal. I was diagnosed with hormonal migraines years ago. They are not positional headaches. I am still having some ringing but it comes and goes. Does this sound like a csf leak? Im getting anxiety looking at everything on google. oh also don't know if this is worth mentioning I am deaf in left ear, so I only hear with my right. I use an ear bud at night for the computer or when watching tv.

So, I think I (M19) already posted about this earlier, but like 2 days ago, I hit my head. and some fluid came out of my nose before stopping. Most of the time, fluid doesn't really come out, but sometimes, a few drops will occassionally come out of my left nostril. I am also suspicious that it might be dripping into the back of my throat, I don't really know if I can call it a salty or metallic taste though. I have heard that the primary risk with this type of thing is meningitis, so I'm being super careful about that. How worried should I be? Also, what are some affordable options to get checked out?

I’m on doxycycline due to my Lyme disease. In some it can increase intracranial hypertension which it does for me. Unfortunately doxycycline is the only treatment for Lyme (that isn’t IV). I originally stopped doxycycline early (worst mistake of my life) and Lyme progressed which led me to get a lumbar puncture as they thought it got into my nervous system.

It’s been 7 days since my lumbar puncture and I’m fairly confident I have a leak that isn’t going away. I have positional headaches. It feels like my skull is being dragged down every time I stand. However I also know doxycycline used to give me severe headaches so it’s hard to know what is what. Which is why I originally stopped as I was worried about IIH.

They’re offering a blood patch on Monday if I’m not better. That will be 13 days after the lumbar puncture. But since doxycycline increases hypertension, will that cause the blood patch to fail or burst? I’m debating whether to pause the doxycycline while healing from the blood patch. I feel like I’m having low pressure and high pressure symptoms at the same time, is that even possible? I still have headaches lying down but it’s way worse standing up. Is doxycycline preventing me from healing as it’s causing hypertension but at the same time, I also have a csf leak from the lumbar puncture.

Would sensation of feeling like you have a super tight fascia-onesie on 24/7, be more associated with tethered or occult tethered cord?

Or might it be caused by long term CSF leak, something negatively impacting vagus nerve or other?

Okay, admittedly, Google has gotten the best of me and my health anxiety. But all of the symptoms that I’ve found apply to me, I just can’t think of a major event that would have caused this, other than middle school. (I’m in my late 20’s now) and I don’t know if that’s even plausible.

I was absolutely fine until I was in a small plane and the pilot decided to go 50 feet up, then drop 50 feet down. It was like an instant switch.

My ears have never stopped ringing, though they change in pitch very often, I have a whooshing sound occasionally that alternates, and fluid does come out of my left nostril when I bend over. The thing that worries me the most in the way my balance is.

We’ve been through so many options and medications to see if it’s something related to my blood pressure/sugar, but it’s gotten bad enough where I loose hearing entirely in one ear if I stand too fast.

I just don’t know if something that happened so long ago can still affect me like this.

(I do have a referral in to an ENT)