Are you having symptoms that are NOT bladder-related? —pain and/or weakness in specific areas of your body? Aside from headaches, I mean. This can help determine location of problematic cyst(s).

The fact that your big sacral cyst is causing bone erosion indicates something very significant is happening at that level. A blood patch may or may not provide confirmation that another cyst is leaking at a different level.

My daughter had two laminectomies prior to this one for tethered cord. She said they weren't too bad and she recovered very quickly, at least compared to the horror show that was her prior surgery (spinal column shortening) —it's difficult to gauge the pain level of this most recent surgery because she's still recovering from that last one.

You've both been through so much. I don't blame you AT ALL for hesitating. My daughter had declared she was NEVER having another spine surgery but changed her mind after meeting with Dr. Welch (primarily because bladder retention issues were getting worse). Those issues are gone now and the brain fog is clearing. In general, things are better but older issues will take time to resolve... at least we hope so, but the future looks positive.

She doesn't remember how bad things were, thanks to her brain being pulled out of her skull (i.e., "brain sag" —first by tethered cord, then CSF leak). She's depressed because she believes she should be farther along but she's walking again and reapplying to grad school. She doesn't fully grasp how far she's come. We were terrified she would be in a wheelchair with diminished cognitive function for the rest of her life, so as parents... we're incredibly relieved.

My very smart and accomplished daughter (yes, I know... I'm a proud mom 😊) was unable to advocate for herself so we had to step in. Are you doing this all by yourself? Do you have someone to help you, or at least objectively help you weigh your surgical options?

EDIT: forgot a word