Dry Tap on Lumbar Puncture

[kaye1234]

I had my second LP yesterday, and it went horribly they had two major attempts and could not get the spinal fluid.  It was a dry tap, they are blaming hydration, however, my last one they had told me to not drink or eat after midnight (mistakenly) and they were able to get it.  This time I had four 8oz glasses of water and juice before hand.  I have been suffering from pressure headaches and sharp pains in my head, could it be low spinal fluid pressure.  They want me to reschedule and do this again, I am leary to do so and want to go to the neurologist.  I am under the care of an Infectious disease doc right now, cause at one point they thought I had lymes but I have been tested 3 times for that.  Any information is appreciated....

[Spaceystac]

Gosh it sounds like you are not producing CSF fast enough. If you get those headaches frequently I would say CSF leak, is it worse when up right?   There are conditions where your Dura, the sac that holds in your fluid can be thin and fragile in places you you can have spontaneous CSF leakage, usually in the throat of sinus this tends to happen. It is rare and hard to diagnose (like many things). Dural Ectasia is another issue where there is balloning of the dura and the lumbar level and people with than are more susceptible to leakage. This condition is often seen in patients with Ankylosing spondylitis.
  Why have they been testing you for lymes, what are your symptoms? That is silly for them to test you 3 times when it keeps coming up negative.

You could try to find a neurologist instead of infectious disease, they might have a different approach with you, but I dont know your history. If the headaches are one of your major issues, another LP is not going to help this one bit, enless you do infact have some infectous disease lurking in you but thats hard to say. Let me know more and I will try to help, but Im with you on the learyness of another tap!!!

[Braintoobig]

Hello there, I'm not too familiar with all of this stuff but I may be facing some similar tests soon.
About the lyme's, from what I understand aren't there a bunch of different tests for that? Did they do all of them for you?