I am personally shocked and surprised how many people posted on here and said that their lumbar puncture was not painful.

For me, personally, it was one of the worst experiences in my entire life.

I haven't felt that much pain, ever, before my lumbar puncture.

I have trigeminal neuralgia, and my doctor has no idea what is causing it. It is being controlled quite well by taking two 300 mg capsules of gabapentin spaced out by taking 1 capsule when I wake up in the morning, and 1 when I go to bed at night.

Anyways, my doctor ordered an M.R.I. with and without contrast, and that was no big deal, other than the fact that the contrast dye had to put injected into an i.v. in my arm, and I hate needles, and also the dye is bad for my kidneys, so I had to drink a lot of water to flush out the contrast dye. The M.R.I. should be sufficient to tell my doctor what is causing the T.N.

But, he also ordered a lumbar puncture, and assured me that it is standard procedure and not a big deal.

It is an enormous deal!

Everyone at the hospital where it was performed assured me it was not painful, just slightly uncomfortable.

Back up a minute. When the hospital called me to schedule both the M.R.I., and the lumbar puncture for the same day, they didn't mention that I would have to stay in the hospital for most of the day to recover from the lumbar puncture and that I wouldn't be able to drive myself back home. I think if they had told me that, I would have chickened out. And that's probably why they kept me in the dark.

Now onto what happened to me. I arrived at the hospital nice and early. They told me not to eat or drink anything that morning, and you'll see why in a moment. I checked in, and they verified who I was and gave me the standard hospital bracelet stuff, and then someone arrived with a wheelchair to get me. I thought that was strange, since I can walk just fine. Little did I know, that I would not be walking when I came out of there. Oops, I shouldn't jump ahead so far. So, they wheeled me into my hospital room and it had one of those hospital beds with wheels, and I thought that was strange. I thought this was just going to be a quick, simple, easy, and painless experience, like everyone was telling me. They had me take off my clothes and put on one of those backless gowns with no metal-- for the M.R.I. Then a nurse came in and put in an I.V. Okay, I hate needles, but so far, no big deal. They then took out 6 tubes of blood from me, labeled them and rushed them off to the lab, who knows what they are checking for with those?

Anyways, next they checked all my vital signs and recorded them in their computer and then they had me lie down in the hospital bed and they whisked me away to the M.R.I. area. Weird I thought. I could have walked there. I guess they were getting me ready for what was to come.

The M.R.I. was no big deal. Even the injection of the contrast was no big deal. They secured my head down so I couldn't move, put in ear plugs in my ears, and wedged my ears very tightly, once again to keep me still. I can handle that with no problem. They then slid me into this long tube and then for about 20 minutes all sort of sounds and vibrations were bombarding my head, neck, and my body. I think it was a whole body M.R.I. Then they slid me out and injected the contrast dye into my vein, and then slid me back in and did some more sounds and vibrations, but not quite as long. Then they slid me out and put me back in my bed and rolled my med down the hall, where the real fun began!

They had me get up on a table and lie on my stomach, and my chin was on a pillow. They found the area where they wanted to puncture and then gave me small shots of some local anesthetic. It numbed my lower back and I wrongly assumed that there would be no pain.

Then came the long, big needle and when it went in, I could feel it and I knew I was in for a world of pain. It was the most excruciating pain I have ever felt as it tore into my spine. I felt weird sensations running down my legs, in my butt, and then a wave of nauseating feelings like I needed to vomit. My left shoulder began to twitch and shake involuntarily. My legs were doing the same thing. I had sweat rolling down my face. My eyes were twitching, and I could feel the fainting reflex coming on strong, like I was going to pass out. I tried to vomit, but there was nothing in there but mucous to come out. I cried and moaned, and they told me they were having trouble getting enough spinal fluid out on the first go around, and so guess what? They pulled out that needle, got a new needle, and tried it all over again! Oh God! The waves of pain from that. They even moved the needle around to try to get more fluid out, and they raised the head end of the table to get more fluid to drip out of my spine. I blacked out from the pain briefly, and when I came to, they were asking if I was okay. I was still unresponsive, because I couldn't speak at that point, the pain was so intense. The finally finished getting enough fluid out and then they removed the second needle and rolled me over onto my back and put me back on the hospital bed with wheels and rolled me back to my room.

I stayed there on my back for 2 hours, and then they came in there to see if I could get out of bed and walk down the hall to go to the bathroom. They wanted to discharge me. I tried to get up, but then the worst headache of my life occurred. I have never felt such a horrible headache in my entire life. Suddenly the pain of trigeminal neuralgia seemed like it wasn't such a big deal, and certainly not worth all this pain and suffering, trying to find out what caused it.

2 more hours passed, and I could finally get out of bed, but I couldn't walk without help.

They went ahead and discharged me anyways.

They wheeled me out to front circular drive of the main entrance to the hospital and I sat down on a concrete chair and was supposed to wait for my ride. I then called the relative who was supposed to be picking me up, and since the whole thing took far longer than any of us had expected, he was at work and couldn't come and get me.

I had to call a taxi and wait there for about an hour for the taxi to show up and drive me home. The ride home was quite painful, as we all know how carefully taxi drivers drive. When I finally got home and paid the taxi driver, I hobbled away from the taxi and barely made it into the front door of my home.

My lumbar puncture did not hurt at all. I give credit to this for the highly skilled neurologist who did it. He was good at other things, too, like prescribing magnesium for jerks and spasm when I could not take Baclofen or Zanaflex. I didn't realize at the time how good he was, as that was fairly early in my diagnosis. I don't remember his name but he was James, a doctor at Scripps, now retired so you can't go see him, but I had lots of luck at Scripps in San Diego.
I am not lying. No pain with lumbar puncture. No headache afterwards. It was the doctor's skill.

I felt preasure but no pain. I too had a top notch Neurosurgeon.

No pain at all and no headache afterwards. Like Sal, just a little pressure.

I had no pain with my LP either.

I have had 2. One without flouroscopy and one with it. I had the first one due to a completley different reason than MS. i was having a high B/P crisis and my head was killing me so I don't thik I could have felt the LP if I had tried to. The second was the flouroscpy and it was apiece of cake. I would have it again with no reservations if it was recommended. Oh, the first one, my vacation started the next day and we traveled to Disney World.

I'm sorry that you had such a painful lumbar puncture Nippers2, but as others have posted ..... it is not be a painful procedure.

For you to have had such a terrible time, I have to assume that either your medical officer was not experienced in the technique, or else there was a physical barrier in your spine making it difficult for him to insert the needle.

I hope that you never have to go through another in the same circumstances.

I wish I had the same experience. Fortunately, the pains and weird feelings have all gone away for me at this point in time.

I would like to know more about how magnesium relieved your spasms.

Does it need to be a prescription form of magnesium, or could I simply buy it as a vitamin at the grocery store?

I wonder if it would help with Trigeminal Neuralgia, which like a spasm on the face?

I buy mine from the Health store so I assume your grocery store would have suitable brands but when first suggesting I buy some for my own cramps/spasms, my doctor told me to buy plain Magnesium and not a brand that's mixed with anything else like Calcium, etc. You also have to be careful not to get the type that is used as a laxative, but the right one is very effective. So far they have worked and they also work for my husband, who does not have MS.

You could try the search function at the top of the page for more information, and if you posted on our Vitamins Forum, I'm sure that mrsD, our resident pharmacy expert, can tell you how it works and advise you on safe doses and suitable brands for the condition. Here's the link : http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum49.html

Also, a few years back some of us MSers did a trial on the effects of pure soap on night cramps, where a group of us put a bar of pure soap in the bottom of the bed and then measured the results. Do any of you remember this?

I remember that, Koala, but it had to be Ivory, I think. I never tried it, but lots said it worked.