Spinal tap pressure reading - does sitting up during the procedure change reading?
 

Hello,
I have suffered from all types of headaches from childhood, fast forward to 40 I am still suffering, but over the past few weeks I have had the most intense pressure behind my eyes, severe!!! That does occur with my headaches, but not like this, it has been constant and no relief. Went to neurologist and she sent me to ER for a spinal tap. She did not order the tap laying down or sitting up, they did it sitting up. My opening pressure was 30, according to the radiologist normal is 12, so I was of course as was she alarmed. Then they called my neurologist and she said that since they did the tap sitting up that can add pressure. When I left my discharge said that my opening reading was 245, so I don't know what the difference in the numbers are there, but I am very confused. Regardless they number is high from everything I have read. I TRUST my doc, and clearly she would not want me to drop over dead, but what is the deal with the pressure reading? what is the variance? How HIGH am I? And could the slight hypertension be the reason I have suffered all my LIFE but it spiked for some reason and now I am getting some where? HELP!!! I am seeing my doc here in a couple hours, this happened Friday and she wants to see me this morning, but I need to know when and if I will need a second opinion. My god, if only I could get to the bottom of this.

Hello!
 

WELCOME to NT!
You've found a wonderful place of support and understanding.
I'm sorry you are having these struggles.

There are several forums here that will probably be of great benefit. I'm thinking that the Spinal forum might be the one to start at with your question about spinal tap.
Here's the link to get you there:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/fo...sprune=-1&f=22

I hope you can start getting some answers soon.
While you wait to get responses, you might want to check out the 'Search' feature toward the top of the page. Type in a word(s) of interest, and it'll bring up posts from past discussions.

It's great to have you!

Caring
Rae
:hug:

Hello and Welcome to NeuroTalk!!
 

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk. Happy to see you have come to be with us. Just let us know if we can be of any help.

There are great number and caring fellow members here, just let us know how we can assist, we are a supportive and relaxing group friends. Our shoulders are here for support in many ways.

Hope you get a solution with your medical problems soon. Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Darlene :hug: