I had an LP on tuesday, and god I’m in pain! I’ve been lying flat, except to eat and go the loo, and drinking lots. I thought I was doing ok. But today the pain is immense!!! Its not just my head but my neck and shoulder and upper back too. It’s horrible!! Its not too bad whilst I am lying down, but as soon as I lift my head off the pillow… wow!!! Is this normal?? (I’m using an android ipad thingy to come online, very handy if you need to stay lying down) I’m now struggling to drink as I have to lift my head up!! I,ve took paracetamol is there anything else I can do??
Hi Julie, as far as I know, no it’s not normal. I didn’t get any pain and have heard others saying they did get severe headache, but usually because they didn’t follow the instructions of lying flat and drinking lots of water… and actually the lying flat is only essential for first few hours.
I think you should phone GP. It’s probably set off MS symptoms and I doubt if it’s anything to really worry about, but do think you should see GP or phone MS nurse if you’re lucky enough to have one.
Sorry Jules nothing much you can do now it is just a case of your body replenishing the fluid taken out. In very rare cases the hole caused by the needle does not close and you need a blood patch to repair.
Hi, I agree with PatB…I didn`t have this pain after my LP. I wonder if whoever took it, made a bodge of it… I recall it was very painful at the time of actually putting the needle into my back…but no other pains followed.
I had a LP in July and had the headache. I thought I should have been getting better and we phoned the hospital 4 days afterwards and they told me to lie flat on my back for 48 hours, to drink copious amounts of coke through a straw so I didn’t have to lift my head and only to get up for the loo. I did this and I did feel better. It was a rough 7-10 days though before I was feeling normal!
I don’t want to be alarmist, but I think you should see a doctor urgently. It sounds like the hole from the LP hasn’t healed - if this is the case, you need to have a very minor op to fix it. Positional headaches after LPs are reasonably common, but I’m pretty sure that they shouldn’t get worse days after the procedure.
Please phone your GP and ask for an urgent home visit. (You can’t get up after all!)
I had a this happened to me mainly the back of ny neck every time i tried to sit up the pain would be unberable and there would be a pulling sensation, pain killers did not help. I phoned my doctor and he sent me to hospital. They said it was a rare reaction and gave me some strong painkillers whitch did the job and then they sent me home I was fine after that.
I’m glad that you’re feeling a bit better than this morning, hopefully that’s you on the mend now!
I had a terrible headache following my LP in May, it didn’t start until at least a day later despite me having following the instructions to lie flat and drink lots of caffeine drinks. It was awful, I was fine while I was lying flat but felt like my brain was going to fall out of my head whenever I lifted my head or got up, felt sick and dizzy too.
I actually lost my hearing 3 days after the LP so called out the GP and ended up back in hospital. I had read about the blood patch that can be done but my hospital told me that LP headaches can last up to a week and that although blood patches were generally successful they didn’t like doing that unless the headache went on for longer than that. It turned out the hearing loss was a really rare side effect of the LP, something to do with one of the cranial nerves which float in the CSF being disturbed.
Anyway my hearing came back a couple of days later, I was laid flat for 7 days and it took me another 4-5 days to recover completely. It was worth it in a weird way because it came back positive.
I hope that you continue to get better but if you’re unsure/concerned you should really call your GP or the hospital as the others have said, for some reassurance if nothing else!
hi, it is unusual, but I can tell you you’re not alone. When I has mine I was sick in the hospital, and when I did finally go home (laid flat on the back seat of the car), I had to have a sick bowl. When I got home I went straight to bed and didn’t move for 5 days. I couldn’t lift my head at all. I even had to use a bedpan! Every time I tried to sit up it felt like my head was going to explode. I have had a child, and even that pain didn’t compare. I spoke to my GP, who told me to drink plenty especially cola and lucozade. He gave me some codeine to take the edge of a bit.
after my last LP in 2006 the next day I had the mother oif all headaches yes I can still remember as it was so bad, the neuro knew all about the LP headache, he told me its the difference in the pressure of taking some fluid out, he told me to drink a caffeine based drink like coke but I’ve not had any for over 10 years now so I said no to him, so I had to drink very weak coffee for rest of the day just to get rid of my LP headache, so if you can drink a can of coke get one or strong coffee just for the caffeine content, I feel for you with your headache.
Well I’m still in loads of pain!! Mainly my neck if I sit/stand up, but eases as soon as I lie down again. Dr just gave me 500mg cocodamol, but its not touchibg the pain.
It’s doing my head in, I just want to sit up!! Had tickets to see Peter Kay last night in MEN - had to sell them
Wish it would hurry up and go away now… this better be worth it and come up with some results!!!
My first LP ten years ago I was ill in bed for over a week. I let a medical student do his first LP on me. Afterwards my back and the bed were wet.
I was an inpatient in hospital and didn’t want to make a fuss when I felt so ill. I had my MRI the day after. My MRI showed my cerebellar tonsils had gone through my foramen magnum.
It’s never shown up on MRI since so had to be the lumbar puncture.
I am now on day 6 and this pain isnt going anywhere! I am now constantly dizzy and feel quite sick. Also my hearing either disappears or for brief moments sounds ‘double’
Getting nowhere with medical people. GP wasn’t interested, just left a prescription for cocodamol which has been useless.
I’ve phoned the ward I was on last week for the LP and they said the headache can last for about a week, just keep laying flat and drinking lots. I explained about dizzyness and nausea and ears and she said phone gp for something for nausea!
I’m getting very fed up of lying down! fed up of the pain! Plus I am self employed and am letting a lot of my customers down right now.
Sorry to hear that you’re still not feeling any better
Glad you called the GP but their response was a bit disappointing eh! If you’re still not right by tomorrow I’d be straight back on the phone to them!
One thing, I’m not sure what strength of co-codamol you’ve been given (you said before 500mg but that’s the paracetamol part I think, the codeine part is the number before it normally an 8 or a 30) but if it’s 30/500 they are pretty strong especially if you’re not used to taking them and they could actually be making the dizziness and nausea worse? I only know this from taking them myself and feeling totally crap!
Yes the after effects of the LP can be quite bad and not just for a few hours after. They botched mine in hospital and as I was already admitted to the neurology ward (due to my first attack) I was kept in for 2 weeks after the LP.
Couldn’t sit up or even tilt my head to drink and eat as the pressure headaches and accompanying dizziness were too great.
They had me on caffeine tablets and painkillers to try and minimize the effects, but unfortunately LP pains laugh in the face of painkillers
Towards the end of week 2 I’d lost so much weight from lack of eating and vomiting from nausea that I figured I needed to do anything to get me back on track. So my family and friends would help me get out of bed and just walk down the hallway for 30 seconds and then back to the relief of lying down. Each day I tried to increase the amount of time I was vertical, until one day I had a craving for a big plate of chips - so I knew I was on the mend
Oh how I remember this! 2002 and I had just started my new job and was off for 2 weeks! Yes it is/was the mother of all headaches. It took 10 days for mine to go and the only relief I got was lying down all the time - which gets boring! The only ‘trick’ I learnt recently for headaches is to drink regular coke - not diet and also take an aspirin - not paracetamol at the same time.
