I wouldn't have believe it if I didn't see it for myself.

First of all, if you live anywhere near New York and you need to get a Spinal Tap, go to Dr. Merchandani of Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, in the Radiology Department. What a sweetheart.

He met us in the morning and Alan says to him "Don't forget to give me lots of novocaine". and the doctor replied "Novocaine, we don't use novocaine anymore, and the nurse said "that's right, don't we hit them over the head with a piece of iron or something? Alan burst out laughing. Took away all the tension.

Dr. Merchandani explains that he has this x-ray machine that he uses to locate where he will do the Spinal Tap and he uses Lidocaine and etc. etc. and so we say our goodbyes, and I wait until Alan is wheeled right past me (about 90 minutes later). His LP took longer than usual because Alan has severe spinal stenonis and the doctor changed needles to a much smaller, thinner one to get the spinal fluid out. He spoke to Alan during the whole thing apologizing if he was hurting Alan and Alan said "you're not hurting me" (Alan told me the whole story on the way home).

When it was over, as I'm waiting in the waiting room, the doctor approaches me and says "He did fine, the fluid was clear and he went on to explain about what it means if it is cloudy or has blood in it, but he said "his fluid was nice and clear". What they look for ar markers, etc. I told him, "yeah, I learn lots of stuff from the Neuropathy Boards on the internet. He said "oh really, that's great".

Then I see Dr. Goldfarb, and I had the opportunity to ask her about my concern about his taking zoloft and the cymbalta and about Seratonin Syndrome. She told me not to worry. So I won't worry about that.

Alan will see Dr. Goldfarb in about 10 days.

Then they wheeled him before me on the way to recovery. Alan is lying on his stomach. Since it was better for his PN for him to lie on his stomach, the doctor said "No problem". So there was Alan lying flat on his stomach with his head down turned to the side telling me "Melody, this guy is great, I didn't feel a thing". I was amazed.

Then he went to recovery until 1 p.m. and they gave him juice and took real good care of him. He was able to walk down to get on the access-a-ride and he just now ate a bagel and some crystal light (with splenda) no aspartame.

The doctor told him as he was looking at the x-rays, he said "Alan, I will tell you this, you have a severe degenerative spine. The stenonis was so severe he told him "only surgery could fix this".

So if we need to, they have an arthritic spine specialist on another floor. This hospital has everything. Alan wouldn't hesitate to go any place else.

So he feels good. They told us what to do about not raising the head too high and too fast and just relaxing the whole day. So far, he's doing good.

He is a very good patient. I don't think I would have been that calm. I had heard all sorts of horror stories about spinal taps but it seems in Alan's case, it was not painful. How cool is that???

Melody

Could anyone have asked for a better outcome? I am very glad to hear everything went so well. Please tell Alan he's a soldier, and I'm releived the spinal turned up clear.

Have a great day Mel

I got a really good feeling that we are going to finally find out why this man has PN and mainly it will be from the stenosis (I mean if such a thing is possible to find out).

Now whether they can do something about it or not, well, that remains to be seen. But I'll tell you something,

I AM SO GLAD THIS IS 2007 AHD NOT 1907.

I mean the technology, the machines, it's all really impressive. Want to know what really impressed me today at Methodist Hospital? This I have never seen before. Usually when a person is wheeled back into recovery, well, it's always cold. They never have the room warm enough (I guess it's because all the computerized stuff needs to be in a cold environment).

Well, everytime I've been hospitalized, or Alan has been hospitalized, we always froze until somebody bought us another blanket and then it was always some thin stupid thing.

Well, as they wheel him around the corridors, everybody was saying "jeez, it's cold in here (of course, it's cold, it's NYC and about 9 degrees outside). So they wheel him into a room and it was COLD. So I ask the nurse, can she please get another blanket for him and she says "Oh, how silly of me, he doesn't need a blanket" and she goes over to this machine on the wall (I think it was called Bear Claws or Bear Something or other). and there's a long tube connected to it. She turns it on and nice warm air comes out of the end of the tube and she places it under his top sheet and it warmed up the whole area. I said 'when did they discover this thing". and she laughed and said "isn't this the neatest thing?".

Never saw that before. I wonder if other hospitals use this contraption??

Melody

Melody...

Both about the painless spinal tap and the personal space heater! I am always freezing in hospitals. I would have killed for something like that after my c-section....I was so cold and shivering, I though I was going to drop my new baby!!!

Ann

This is really a common cause of pn, as I discovered only after I was diagnosed with it myself. I would not be surprised to learn that most people with "idiopathic neuropathy", that group that gets it in their 50s and 60s, isn't made up to a large extent of stenosis folks.

That's why I put MRI on the lizajane charts. Spinal stenosis needs to be evaluated in all of us with pn.

Psoriasis is accompanied by psoriatic arthritis. Psoriatic arthritis is almost always marked by severe arthritis in the spine. This I know because I have the gene for psoriasis, even though I don't have it, and the docs keep thinking maybe I have psoriatic arthritis without the skin problems.

So it's going to be very important for Alan to be followed by a spine surgeon to make sure this doesn't progress to a point where there is permanent damage. And since it's psoriatic spinal arthritis, it can be quite bad.

Good you've found such thorough doctors for him.

Hi Mel, I am glad to hear that it was all clear for him and he got a real pro that done it for him, and by the sounds of it, no wonder he was getting relief from the neuro/chiropractor guy.
all the best
Brian