How the day went...
I arrived at the hospital at 8 a.m., got checked in, sent to my room to put on a hideous hospital gown with ventilation holes all over the place, had an IV needle stuck in my arm, and sat and waited... and waited... and waited.
My appointment was at 10 a.m., but I don't think they wheeled me away until closer to 10:30. I was taken to a room with some sort of crazy X-ray bed. Trying to roll over from my bed to the X-ray bed was amusing. I didn't want my bare booty all up in the X-ray technician's face. Then I waited... and waited. Finally the doctor doing the procedure came in, and I got to see my spine on the screen. After finding the spot, I was injected with the numbing shot. The shot itself wasn't painful, but the medicine was. It was a stinging, burning sensation as the medicine spread across my back area.
After a few minutes, it was time to insert the needle. I felt it go in and first, but nothing too painful. Once it was all the way in, the doctor had me roll over into the fetal position. I'm not too sure why I didn't start out in this position. I was a bit nervous rolling over with a giant needle in my back, but I did what they said. And then for another 15ish minutes, I stayed in an uncomfortable position while the fluid drained. Meanwhile, the doctor and technician talked about the Lakers - gag me. After it was over, I rolled back onto my bed and was wheeled back into my room.
The monitor was strapped to my arm, and I was put on 3 1/2 hour bed rest. My mom left to go let Presley out, and I was left to my own devices. It's quite hard to function when you are flat on your back. Lunch came in and my head was lifted a bit. Eating proved to be a challenge, as I tried to reach up to the tray to grab my food and then because of the angle of my body, food kept falling over me. I eventually gave up.
Boredom set in, along with pain. Every 30 minutes the monitor would go off and squeeze my right arm. It was quite painful because the IV needle was in my right hand, so the monitor would squeeze my vein. This continued for the 3 1/2 hours. I almost cried in pain. Then the numbing medicine started to wear off. I'm not sure if it was that or just the position in which I was laying, but my back started to hurt. When my mom finally came back, I turned into a toddler, asking her every other minute what time it was. At long last, my time ended, and I left the hospital at around 4:00 p.m.
Bed rest followed the rest of the day. I was actually supposed to be on bed rest for 24 hours, but I chose to go to work the next day because of how busy my department was. And then later that week, I chose to go to SXSW. Later in the day that whole week, my back would start hurting a lot. It happened after I was sitting or standing for too long, which was pretty much every day. And my right hand hurt from the 7 hour needle placement. When Friday night rolled around, I bent down to put Presley's leash on and cried out in pain. I think I pushed it way too much that week.
But by the next week, I was feeling better. I don't have any results back. I have an appointment with my neurologist next week on April 7th, so we'll see what she says then.
In conclusion - spinal tap not as bad as one would think, but I don't recommend it either.
Oh - and don't spend 30 minutes picking out a cute pair of undies because every google search image shows a body curled up in the fetal position wearing undies. Nope - you will be naked under that hospital gown.
*Here is my tramp stamp a few days after the procedure*
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