Update about this past week and the Spinal Tap...

Thursday February 22 I had the spinal tap at 845am. It took about 45 minutes for the head of radiology to get the needle in with me screaming the entire time. I also put my long nail through the palm of my male nurse's hand which I was holding onto. The local anesthesia did not work. All the pain that I felt went down my bad right hip. They took four vials of fluid, my pressure number was 13 ½ (when I asked Dr, was told this was normal), clear. I was dizzy but okay when we left the hospital. I took a nap when we got home. I had no idea what I was in for after that.....

When I woke up, I woke up to the most excruciating pain I have ever been in in my life....and it continued until 1105am this morning...February 28, 2007. All During this time, for the last 6 days my whole back has been numb from just above my tailbone, the sacrum area. I would get hot sensations, then this searing pain into my head each time I would raise my head at all from anything above anything but a flat position. I had to be laying flat on my back. Today, I had a procedure done, my girlfriend, Lisa, described it so well in a post that I will let her do so here for me....

As some of you probably know, one of the risks of having a spinal tap (and an epidural) is that the hole won't close right away, spinal fluid will leak out, the pressure in the brain will drop, and an excruciating headache, called a spinal headache, develops. This happened to Lyssa Noel. For a week, every time she tried to eat, she vomited. She could only lie flat on her back to experience even a modicum of relief. Lyssa said that she's had migraines her whole life and the spinal headache was so far beyond any migraine. Finally, today they told her to come in for a blood patch. The blood patch is a procedure where they draw about 20 mLs of blood from the arm then inject it into the spinal area (yes, another needle in the spine!) with hopes that the platelets will seal off the hole and relieve the pain. The
nurse anesthesiologist who performed the procedure warned her that not only might it not work, but it could make the headache even worse. Lyssa's reply was, "It cannot possibly be any worse. Do the patch." Lyssa said she had total and complete relief for about 5 minutes, then the hole must have opened up again because the pain returned, although not as bad as
before. They sent her home and said if she's not experiencing enough relief by tomorrow, they can do another patch. They cannot do more than two patches because it could dislodge too many nerves and/or increase the pressure in the spine too much. Lyssa said that she can now lie on her side, not
just on her back. She was able to eat and so far it has stayed down.

After I got off the phone with Lisa, I did sleep... on my side for a solid hour with no pain in my head at all for that whole hour. I woke up to pain in my back. I guess since they put that blood volume there, that now I am having to deal with that. The headache isn't too bad. Right now it is almost midnight and it is tolerable. I did talk to the neurologist this afternoon and she wants to see me sooner than the original March 16th follow-up appointment but does agree that this coming Friday might not be a good idea with all that has gone this week. So I believe with how things stand right now, I will be seeing her next week Friday the 9th. She did up my Topamax dosage quite a bit, so I do believe some of the results of the spinal are in and something in them led her to change that dosage, as she did just change that dosage less than 2 weeks ago.

I am getting dizzy again so I still have a long ways to go before I feel normal again, but it's a start. I am going to go LAY on my SIDE!!! WOOHOO!!! GoodNIGHT!!!