The hospital that I had the lumbar puncture at just called me, keep in mind it is 10 pm, asking me to come back to have some blood work done. I live in a whole different county and cannot make it tonight, so she said that I could come as early as 7:30 in the morning. I have had an LP before, and I know for sure that I did not have to have a sample done then. Is it normal procedure to have bloodwork done with an LP? I already have an appointment scheduled about 90 miles the other way for Vestibular Therapy, but I am so concerned now, I am considering cancelling that and heading straight over there in the morning. She also stated that they had been trying to call me all day, and I did see it on my caller ID..This time, she actually called from her cell phone, which scares me even more. Should I be concerned....
My Neurologist ordered them to look for the opening pressure, cell count, differential, glucose, protein, IgG index, Oliogoclonal Bands Serum, and Albumin. He again is searching for MS and anything inflammatory.
All I heard during the test to give me any clue of the results was that the opening pressure was 60. What is the norm?
Some background:
I am 27 and have been experiencing Neurological symptoms for a little over three years now. I started seeing a Neurologist three years ago, actually today, and he has been NO GOOD. MATTER OF FACT JUST A YEAR AGO HE STARTED TREATING THE MIGRAINES HE KNEW I HAD, FROM DAY ONE. My first symptoms were numbness and tingling in my extremities that appeared in my left leg, but slowly spread to the rest of my body. I found out about a year later from my Rheumatologist that it was actually Neuropathy, Restless Leg Syndrome as well as Myoclonus all of which are considered Neurological.
stiffness, major fatigue, depression, major headaches, spasticity, spasms, myoclonus, restless leg, tingling in head and extremities, vibration sensations, buzzing sensations when moving head from time to time, anxiety, major cognitive dysfunction, sleeping dysfunctions, inability to feel and recognize touches unless they are visual, muscle weakness – especially in extremities, extra tension in arms and legs with usage, chronic indigestion, walking (I have a gait), constant state of tiredness – inability to complete most tasks – moving or lifting items, exercising, walking, carrying grocery, brushing hair, etc
To make the situation worse on October 28th I woke up and the room was spinning and has been since. As soon as my Neurologist's office opened I called and informed them of the fact that I was unable to walk with out running into items or falling completely down. The nurse told me to lie down immediately and to do nothing until she called back. When she called back, she told me to either go straight to the ER or come there. I was told that I was suffering from Vertigo. Unfortunately he has done no testing, just continued to take me off of medication the last few months, which has not helped.
My Rheumatologist last month looked in my ear and noticed that my eardrum was swollen remarkably on the right side so decided to send me to my ENT. He also decided before the appointment to prescribe two weeks of high dose prednisone 4 5mg tablets in the am, and 4 at night as well as two 600 mg antibiotics daily for two weeks. This helped the eardrum go down as well as the apparent ear infection I had at the time. The ENT said that it could have made the Vertigo worse, but was not the main cause, and in turn sent me for an MRI with and w/o contrast and well as Vestibular PT. I had already done the Vestibular PT eval just 6 weeks in advance.
This time the results were much worse she said, she didn't give me the results from the first time. This time though when she scored me standing still and doing a few different exercises I scored only 13 out of 24. When she scored me for gait it was 8 out of 24, so both are pretty poor. She said that she hasn't seen it get that bad that quickly. Now I am facing life using a walker, my Vestibular Therapist ordered a walker this past Friday, and is hoping to keep it at just a walker.
We are unsure as to what is causing the Vertigo, I had several MRIs before years ago searching for MS, as well as a LP, a Evoked Potential and all came back normal. This MRI came back normal as well. Everyone seems to think the cause of the Vertigo still is Neurological, just not sure why, I am firing my current Neurologist though. But cannot get into another one for a few months.
My latest ENG, March 16th, showed an abnormality in my right ear. My new Neurologist wants to state that this is the cause of the Vertigo. Keep in mind my very first ENG in November was normal, could this be possible? My Vertigo actually started in October?
YES YOU MUST HAVE BLOOD WORK DONE at the SAME TIME AS THE LP otherwise the spinal fluid count of o-bands is useless. What they are looking for it the difference in numbers between how many o-bands are in your blood versus how many are in your spinal fluid. The excess number in your CSF is a marker for MS.
If you don't get the blood work done in a timely manner, it will make your CSF useless for o-band testing.
don't skip this important step.
Lu