![]() ![]() Tingling or numbness: Sometimes, the needle may brush against one of the peripheral nerves, which can cause temporary numbness or pain.Infection: There's a slight risk of developing an infection in the site, but this rarely happens.Bleeding: There is a risk of bleeding from a lumbar puncture in the area that was punctured.Back pain: You might feel mild and temporary aching in your back where the needle was placed.The more leakage there is, the more severe the headache. Headache: Up to one-third of people who get a lumbar puncture will later develop a spinal headache due to CSF leaking from the puncture site.I am really tired of being the patient and ready to be the nurse again. With any luck, I will back to work on Monday and getting back into my routine. I was finally given my work release upon discharge from the hospital on Thursday. I am less than thrilled about these revelations. So it looks as if I will have to take steroids and thyroid medication for the rest of my life. I don’t think my lumbar puncture Hospital Health RevelationsĪ 3 day hospital stay revealed I was suffering from adrenal and thyroid insufficiency. There was a pleasant change in pace in the normal hospitalization for me on this visit since I only had to have 2 IV in 3 days. I have terrible veins so the lab techs and IV teams typically are less than thrilled to see me. There was Q6 lab draws for sodium as well as a daily cortisol level. Of course, I continued to be poked and prodded on in other manners. The result of all the lumbar probing? Apparently, it was negative because I never heard anything else about it. And if that weren’t enough insult to injury, they were unable to complete the procedure successfully at the bedside and I had to go the next morning to have it performed under x-ray with the assistance of lady Ativan. To top I all off this occurred in a semi-private room and my screams of agony were fully audible to the 2 other patients sharing the suite with me at 1am. Had it not been for his sympathy and kind nature I doubt I would have allowed the spinal probe to continue as long as I did. I will say, however, that the resident performing the lumbar puncture had a fabulous bedside manner. I sincerely hope that is the closest I ever come to be being struck by lightning. And at 26 I should be a bit past the bed wetting stage. At one point my bladder felt like it was being charged and I feared I was going wet the bed. My left leg, in particular, was the victim of multiple electrical strikes. Every time the needle found itself in the wrong location, a jolt of electricity would find itself there as well. Since apparently nothing is routine with me, it didn’t go as planned. During this experiment in pain thresholds, I had to lay as still as possible on my side, in fetal positive, for 15 minutes as a resident attempted to correctly place the LP needled in my spinal sac. Because of this, I was subjected to the hell-on-earth of something called a lumbar puncture. There was a question of whether I had a spinal infection. Lumbar Punctures Side Effects Experienced In case you’re wondering exactly what happens in the lumbar puncture procedure, check out this lumbar puncture video. Sometimes doctors use lumbar punctures to inject anesthetic medications or chemotherapy drugs into the cerebrospinal fluid. This is the fluid that surrounds your brain and spinal cord to protect them from injury.Ī lumbar puncture can help diagnose serious infections, such as meningitis other disorders of the central nervous system, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome and multiple sclerosis or cancers of the brain or spinal cord. ![]() During a lumbar puncture, a needle is inserted between two lumbar bones (vertebrae) to remove a sample of cerebrospinal fluid. Lumbar Puncture DefinitionĪccording to Mayo Clinic, the definition of lumbar puncture is:Ī lumbar puncture (spinal tap) is performed in your lower back, in the lumbar region. I really just want to get my life back in order, and frequent hospital admissions aren’t exactly the routine in my life. Needless to say, I was a bit upset about it at the time. ![]() Then again, I guess a brain tumor isn’t just a routine illness.Ĭonsidering the fact that I had been sleeping 16 hours a day, all day, staying up all night, having absolutely no energy, and drinking nearly my weight in water every day, it probably was the most appropriate choice. ![]() again… So that makes for 3 admissions for this particular ailment. I was supposed to go in and get a release, but instead, I got admitted to the hospital. This really put a damper on my plans since I was hoping I would be able to return to work soon. As part of this admission, I experienced a lumbar puncture and related lumbar puncture side effects Recently, I was hospitalized for recurring lethargy and various other symptoms. The pituitary tumor journey has been extensive. ![]()
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