Hello,
Do you have any other odd symptoms even if you think it's not related?
What kind of work have you done?
Any accidents, falls or whiplash type injuries, ever?
Any Neck or shoulder pain or discomfort?
If so have you had an xray or MRI of your Cervical spine?

Jo

Thanks for your response.
No falls or injury of any kind. No pain or discomfort either.
I have been going to the doctors for about 2 years.
I have had mri of my head and neck not cervical area?
Sometimes I get the sensation I am falling when Im not. Like when you are just starting to fall asleep. Only when Im still. I also get some kind of clonic jerks (forget the name its been so long) when Im still also. I cant really think of anything else. I havent been pursuing this for a while but the nerve damage kind of started my curiousness up again. Waiting for the blood tests then they said maybe doing a lumbar puncture to test spinal fluid. That doesnt sound like much fun.

the lumbar puncture to test spinal fluid is not too bad. I have had one done by my neurologist, and it was painless. The last one, also done by a doctor, was a machine guided puncture...that one was more painful, but nothing worse than a needle type pain. It also failed to seal, so I had to return to the hospital to have a "blood patch"...in which the same doctor injected blood back into the original site, to stop the leaking, and to stop the headache. And that went very well.

experiences can vary so much!

I'd had 3-4 over the past 20 years, right in the doc's office and had no problems at all. Then, I'd had one recently, done by a neuroradiologist (her needle guided by a picture of my spine) and had problems for over two weeks. I'd had daily severe headaches, pain at the site the needle was inserted, etc. (I did not need a "blood patch.")

Theoretically, the "guided" LP should be less problematic than the non-guided ones?

However, I had read an article recently that had asserted the cause of ongoing pain is they type of a needle chosen by the doctor to do the LP? Who knows, for sure? (The article had said neuroradiologists tend to use the needle design that creates the least amount of ongoing pain? I'd had this type of a specialist do the procedure I'd had the most pain from. )

There are likely many variables as to why somene does/does not have any additional problems with headache, etc. There's a lot of info. on the net about all of this, for sure.

However, I am also older now and have much more arthritis in my spine, etc. So maybe this is the cause of my more recent experience with ongoing pain from the procedure?

Many have this procedure withoiut ongoing problems though.

It's great you are asking questions as you anticipate various testing procedures, so you will have some idea of what to expect. So many people have many different experiences with this procedure. It would be impossible to accurately predict yur own response to this procedure, as the same person can have a different experience at a different time.

Good luck with your testing!

I hope you can find some help soon!