My Diagnosis

I HAD to schedule the Lumbar Puncture, I s'pose.  I remember singing very loudly in my head to distract myself from the EXTRA LONG needle that was being stuck into my spine.  That year one of my favorite Carnival songs was 3Mile...and that was the song that i sang over and over - I think that Gib was in the room too.  As it turns out, it really wasn't that bad, i guess singing the song (or something else) actually helped.  The week after however was TORTUROUS!  the thing about the spinal tap is that they are taking a small sample of spinal fluid from ur spinal column.  the procedure actually leaves a hole (the bloody needle is so big) in ur column and if u don't lie flat for it to heal, the fluid leaks which causes extreme headaches.  Well i am (was) a hero and at that point, i hadn't told my mgr anything, so i was going to work as if things were normal, when in fact they coulnd't be any further from.  My head and neck used to feel like they were in a vise grip and eventually i could take it no more.  There is a procedure that can be done called a Blood Patch (they take some of ur own blood and inject that back into ur spine which seals the hole) but of course there are risks involved as it is a surgical procedure.  I didn't care, i just wanted the pain to stop...

I couldn't imagine how well that would have worked, but as soon as my blood was injected into my spine, the pain vanished - it was incredible.  That was the first time that I cried since all this started because i actually felt all alone and i couln't imagine y this was happening to me...

2/3 weeks later, the results of the Lumbar Puncture were in.  That combined with all the other test results confirmed that I had Multiple Sclerosis.