So sorry you had a rough time with the LP. Thank goodness that can usually be avoided with the skill of the person doing the procedure [neuros did mine both times], and some preventative care. Any excuse to lay around for a whole day is a good enough excuse for me!

Was the LP you had positive? With the LACK of diagnostic skills of many neuros, I'd seriously doubt my dx if it hadn't be confirmed by LP. And then reconfirmed by redoing all the tests at Mayo.

I'm just a bit cynical-----

Thanks Barb.

It was performed by an Anesthesiologist (couldn't ask for a more trained professional for this procedure), but I just had a stroke of bad luck.

To be honest, I've never even tried to find out what went wrong, or why it was so serious, but I know I had to BEG for an epidural with both of my pregnancies. I swear I'd still be pregnant if I hadn't had those in the end.

You are right, the worst that most experience is the headache and requirement to lie around a few days. I won't go into any more gory details about my experience, but it was nothing as simple as that.

I never asked whether the LP showed the bands (I don't think so). To be honest, I didn't even know what they were looking for with that particular test as I was pretty incoherant before and after the test. I was in the middle of a Transverse Myelitis (spinal lesion) attack at the time.

I was dx with "probable MS" (1991), but still had to wait for another clear attack before they would confirm it. After the second attack, I had an MRI, and the lesions were visible in my spine and brain. So, at the end of the day, the LP was unnecessary.

Cherie

Mine was done by an intern. Not a good idea. The spinal tap headache went on for like three weeks and it was excruciating. They also forgot to draw blood to compare it. But, it was positive in a number of different ways.

You should wait ten years, all the while stalking that intern, and then take your revenge like a Klingon! We'll all hold him down and...well, I don't think we could pull off an LP on our own...wait - we'll catheterize him!

"Don't worry, Doctor...you won't feel a thing."

My first LP was done by a intern, other than he had a hard time getting fluid and it took an hour, there was no problem. This one showed high protien and MBP and no O bands. Blood tests were done with it.

The second LP was done by a neuro, I wound up back in ER with a leak and had a blood patch that made my whole left side go numb for many hours, and my upper lip is still numb 9 months later. No accompanying blood work was done with it. Protien was Low, MBP normal and it states 0-1 bands, they tell me that they weren't allowed to tell me if it was 0 or 1. Also they only checked the IgG and not IgM or IgA on the second. My neuro told me he would only check anything to do with MS and nothing else!

Pat

Too funny kingrex!