I don't understand why he needs a LP to confirm MS anyway? My first question to him would be "do the results of this test have the potential to change the dx, and if so, to what other disease?"

Unless we have an acute Transverse Myelitis attack (which you didn't) there are only a very few non-MS related diseases that can cause "lesions" in the spine, including; ADEM (Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis), Sarcoidosis, Lyme (Borrelia burgdorferi) and SLE (Lupus). See link:

ALL of those diseases also have O-bands:

http://www.diseasesdatabase.com/resu...ClassSort=True

There are "other" tests that can be done to rule out those disease, like chest x-rays (for Sarcoidosis), Western Blot (for Lyme), blood tests positive serology with ANA and double-stranded DNA (for Lupus). Sarcoid, Lyme, and ADEM also do not have dissemination in time, which MS has. See link:

The LP itself did not hurt me, at least no moreso then an epidural did with the delivery of both my kids (and there's NO WAY they could have talked me out of that procedure at the time! ). However, my LP was botched, and I was left in the Brain Trauma Unit for a week after having it, so I flat out refused to have another when they desired to "see" the O-band details years later.

I just don't see how having this test is going to prove anything to him?

Cherie