Caitlin Witte

Friends and Family of Caitlin Witte,

As some of you may now know, Caitlin recently underwent surgery to repair a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak. For Caitlin, this fluid that surrounds and protects the brain and spinal cord had been leaking for about 3 and a half years. Throughout this time she experienced severely painful headaches due to the fluid pressure change around her brain, among other negative symptoms that have impacted the strain on her body as a whole.

She has completed two blood patch procedures with little to no results, a series of MRI scans, four myelogram procedures, consulted with three neurologists, three neuroradiologists, and finally a neurosurgeon. Her care team at Mayo Rochester was able to diagnose her with this leak and locate exactly where it was in her spinal column to move forward with surgery to close the leak. After advocating for herself time and time again, it was an emotional, yet relieving, diagnosis after years of dealing with this intense pain.

The neurologist and neuroradiologists who read through her scans repeatedly voiced to her how amazed they were with how she has been able to function through all of life’s stages, such as completing nursing school and beginning a full-time job in the ER these past few years, with the severity the scans showed.

After the surgery was successful, her initial couple of days she was recovering as expected. After being sent home post-surgery, she was hit yet again with another obstacle. Her body had been compensating for the CSF leak by creating excess CSF. Once the leak was fixed, her body was creating too much CSF fluid causing intracranial hypertension and even more extreme pressure headaches due to this buildup. After a few more scans and tests at the ER, she was sent back home with hopes of improvement with a different medication and pain management routine. With this, she is slowly improving, although teetering on good and bad days.

We have started this Go Fund Me account to ease the burden of these numerous medical expenses coming from the multiple specialty visits and consults, multiple different scans and tests, procedures, emergency room visits, the surgery itself, as well as the hospital stay afterward. Caitlin will also be out of work for about 3 months while she heals. As you can imagine, these bills can add up fast alongside their mortgage payment and daily living costs. Thank you so much for your support and prayers!