Spinal Pressure

Hi all! I was just curious to know how many of you have had your spinal pressure tested. I have had it done twice. The first time was no big deal and the second time sucked. It was the difference between x-ray guided and not. The second time a coule of days later I felt awful, like I was being scalped. My fluid had leaked and I had a spinal headache. This was absolutely the worst headache/migraine I have ever had. If ever I wanted to shoot myself in the head, it was then!!!

I was just wondering if this was something everyone has gone through, like a pretty standard thing, or maybe something you might want to consider. When I was inpatient, my roommate had been in there for a month already and they finally figured out that her spinal pressure was low. They treated her for that and sent her on her way. When mine leaked, I had the blood patch done and it was like a miracle! I went in well over level 10, couldn't walk, had to be laying down flat, and then after the patch, walked out on my own feeling almost "cured".

I have migraines to this day, but I will tell you what nothing ever like that spinal headache. Whenever I feel really bad I think of how I felt that day and know I can get through it!!! Anyways I was just curious.

I didn't have the spinal tap with opening & closing pressures down until further into my headache journey. No, my first several neuros never mentioned it. They thought the mri or ct scan was the most important thing. There are certain symptoms such as headache changing when you change from standing to sitting and such that put you in the category that the spinal tap is more important though. I did have the x-ray guided done by an experienced anesthesiologist with a small gauge needle. Never let them do it without these sorts of precautions!

I also went home and stayed laying down the rest of the day and drank lots of fluids. No spinal headache for me thankfully (and no abnormal results). No pain during or after even. The risk can drastically increase without doing these things. The risk of the spinal headache seems to be why a lot of doctors don't do the spinal tap for what they think is a clear cut migraine case. Its very rare I hear of someone not having symptoms fit a more obvious profile who gets the test done and has results indicating a problem. I did it more because I was in a very bad place (way worse than I am now) and wanted to rule out everything...plus the test was low out of pocket and how it was being done put aside most of my fears.