The dreaded lumbar puncture!

Monday 16th was the day of my lumbar puncture, and it's fair to say I was somewhat nervous!

I arrived at the neurologists office for my 8.30am appointment. My back was cleaned with Betadine, then numbing medicine was given via a shot, and that stings so much they should give you a pre-numbing shot!! HAHA! Then a small needle was inserted between the vertebrae and I immediately felt a lot of pressure down my left leg, so I told Dr Adams that and he removed the needle and reinserted it.

It didn't take long to collect the CSF, when the procedure was over he showed me the four vials and I was very surprised to see how clear it was, just like water. So that was it, nothing much to complain about really! I was then told to go home, and lie down for 6 hours and drink a lot of caffeine! Apparently this helps avoid the dreaded Lumbar Puncture headache which is incredibly painful. After lying down in the doctor's office for about 45 minutes, I had to go to another office to have some blood drawn and then Chuck took me home where I spent the rest of the day lying in bed, swigging copious amounts of Coke!

I don't normally drink anything with caffeine in, and I paid for it during the night! Although I was tired I slept poorly! My back was sore and I slept for an hour and had to get up to pee, slept for another hour, had to get up and pee, slept for two hours, asked Chuck to get me some painkillers! It was a long night and I felt terrible the next morning, so Chuck called in sick and stayed home to help out with the boys.

Now I have to sit and wait. The CSF is sent to Minnesota and the results will take about ten days or so to come back. And right now I don't really care if I do have Multiple Sclerosis, I just want to start on the correct medicine for me, and start to feel better and be able to do things again!

And it still is all about me!

I was pretty anxious waiting for my appointment with the neurologist. I saw my rheumatologist and talked to him about my physical therapy appointments and my dizziness. He wouldn't make any comment on my health until the neurologist had seen me, neither will he change any of the many medications I take, until I have seen the neurologist! I wonder if Dr. Adams has any idea how many people are waiting for his professional verdict on my symptoms!

So, the big day arrived and I think it's fair to say I was nervous. Unfortunately Dr. Adams is a very busy guy, seems he's the best neurologist in this area so it was about 45 minutes before I got to see him. I talked to him about my dizziness, about my difficulties in the past with picking up cups and glasses, and my problems with tripping and 'missing' steps, and my inability to balance on one leg. I told him about having such difficulty managing in the heat, that my body temperature seemed to be rising and rising and I seemed to be completely unable to control it.

He sat quietly and listened and then said "You have just given me a classic, perfect description of Multiple Sclerosis." He then put up the films from my MRI and began to show me the different lesions pointing to each one and saying "This is MS," This is MS", "This is a 56 year old brain!" and "This is MS". It was a bit of a shock to hear all this but I remained calm while we went back into the consulting room to talk some more.

Dr. Adams indicated that he wanted to talk with my rheumatologist so they could talk about all my symptoms, but at the moment it is looking less likely that I have Lupus and more likely that I have MS. I was also told that he would like to perform a lumbar puncture on me. I was dreading that, because my last memory of one of those was assisting at one when I was a nurse and the patient (a guy) was crying because it hurt so much! But as Chuck said, "And how long ago was that?" Yes, is was 20 years ago, but it is something that has remained in my mind all that time.

He talked to me about the likelihood of putting an IV in my arm and giving me very high doses of steroids over 3 -4 days, after that I would be put on any one of numerous MS medications, that are all given via injection. I have always said I wouldn't want to have diabetes because I wouldn't want to give myself a shot each day, but it now seems like it's going to happen anyway!

I have a lot to think about.