Dr. Kaylie and Dr. Gray agree I should have another lumbar puncture, and if my pressure is low, I will have another myelogram and patches the same day.  Next, Thursday we’ll find out my symptoms either have nothing to do with Cerebrospinal Fluid, or I’ll be getting more patches.  Can you guess which answer I’m hoping for?

At first I was very concerned, why would I be getting new leaks?  What would this mean for the future?  Will I have to do this over and over and over again?

Then Stuart said something that made so much sense, I thought, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Imagine you have a water hose, and it has a few leaks in it.  You patch all of the leaks but one, at first that one leak doesn’t seem to get any bigger, but after the pressure builds in the hose the leak gets bigger.  Or there may be other weak places in the hose, and since the other leaks have been patched and aren’t there to release the pressure, they start to leak.

Doesn’t that sound obvious?  He’s so smart!  And made me feel much better.  Surely, there will be a finite number of weak spots, and this will happen a finite number of times!

I’m a little nervous about going through this again.  No, the procedure really isn’t that big of a deal.  The worst part is getting the IV before the procedure.  As the phlebotomists say, “I’m a difficult stick.”  I have very small veins that like to roll away from the needle.  To make it worse, they keep it cold in there, and that just makes my veins shrink up.  It usually take them a number of tries before they can get the IV in.

Kind of ironic huh?  I’m going in for a Lumbar Puncture, possible myelogram, and CSF patches; and I’m more concerned about getting the IV than anything else.  Guess I trust my doctor, more than the phlebotomist.  hummm.