Runny nose was really leaking brain fluid

Nebraska woman thought she had allergies

Kendra Jackson assumed she was dealing with allergies or a lingering cold when she went to see yet another doctor for her perpetually runny nose. The frustrated Nebraska native needed another misdiagnosis like she needed a hole in the head.

“(It was) like a waterfall, continuously, and then it would run to the back of my throat,” she told KETV in 2018. “Everywhere I went I always had a box of Puffs, always stuffed in my pocket.”

Jackson's symptoms, which included constant migraines, began to appear a couple of years after she was rear-ended by another driver while sitting in her parked van in 2013. The impact sent her face into the dashboard and broke her shoulder in two places.

With doctors repeatedly pointing to an allergic reaction as the cause of her discomfort, Jackson began to sink into depression, fearing she would never feel normal again. As she burned through box after box of tissues and routinely awoke in the morning drenched from the fluid seeping from her septum. “I couldn't sleep, I was like a zombie,” she said.

Jackson booked an appointment with an ear, nose and throat specialist at Nebraska Medicine and laid down the law upon arrival. “I said, `I am not leaving this office until you tell me what is wrong with me.' I was adamant,” she said.

Carla Schneider, the attending physician's assistant, told Buzzfeed News it was clear almost immediately that Jackson's symptoms were serious. “Just based on her description of the amount of drainage she was having I knew that wasn't normal and wasn't typical for any type of allergic rhinitis.”

After consulting with Christie Barnes, the clinic's specialist, they informed Jackson of their stunning suspicion: cerebrospinal fluid was leaking out of her nose. The clear, colourless fluid that was making Jackson's life a living hell was supposed to be surrounding her brain and spinal cord, cushioning and protecting some of the body's most delicate structures.

“Even though it's not very common, it is something that occurs,” Schneider said.

The condition can present significant medical problems, particularly if bacteria or other pathogens manage to enter the brain through the opening the fluid is escaping from. The clinic told Jackson she had been losing around half a pint of cerebrospinal fluid a day — roughly half the amount of the body produces daily.

In the past, treatment would have involved delicate brain surgery, but Barnes was able to patch the hole in Jackson's head by going through her nose.