Hi! Thought I'd post this here as I know there are a few out there with MS diagnoses. After 16 years of relapsing/remitting-type symptoms, a neurologist had me do more MRIs and evoked potentials tests. The EPs came out ok as did all the blood work, but the MRIs now show several brain lesions as well as more lesions in my spinal cord (that's where they started 16 years ago and they said it was myelitis and would go away). Now, he wants to do a lumbar puncture to "confirm". My sis, who has confirmed MS, says her doc does not do the LPs anymore as they just rule out other things and don't confirm MS-it's the brain lesions that confirm the MS diagnosis, but they live very far away, so it'd be very hard for me to see her doc. She got the bad headache after her LP 20 years ago and had to have a blood patch to fix it (she said that was incredibly painful also).
I have a HUGE fear of the LP, as the 2 times they have had to do any kind of spinal injection on me, I had bad problems (in other words, my very understanding neurologist said, I have a 100% failure rate with spinal cord/needle procedures). But, the procedure here is "no LP, no diagnosis, no treatment".
So, anyone else with MS receive the diagnosis without the LP? Thinking about seeing if there are any neuro/MS specialists near here. Has anyone had success with the LP? Just looking for some advice and doing a little venting as well. Thanks in advance!