Symptom 2 - Part 3: Second trip to the Hospital

Friday, 2nd March,  2012.
Hmm, a new anniversary?
A New Menace...clearly, this blog could not possibly have been written by me unless there was at least one Star Wars reference.

I'd got my bag packed on Thursday night because I had been booked in for an overnight stay at the Ruber International Hospital.
T-Shirt, shorts (so no awful Hospital Gown needed), and a small wash-kit.
Survival gear (Laptop, DVDs and a couple of PC games, Kindle, plugs and chargers, mobile phone).
And...Joy of joys, the hospital had WiFi!!!

I arrive at the hospital and check myself in at reception and then again, complete the administration. This was a further €1000, and after this, I was shown up to my bedroom for the day/night. Co-incidentally, it was the same room I had been using the previous day.

Today was already planned out.

• Chest X-Rays
• Lumbar Puncture
• Course of Corticosteroids (to reduce inflammation in the areas of the lesions and hopefully reduce the numbness). This course would be over the course of the next three days; today, tomorrow and Sunday.

Whilst I was getting ready, my wife, who'd taken our son to his nursery, had been chatting with my sister Lee about what was happening. Lee asked if she should come over and Mitra suggested chatting with me first.

Meanwhile, one of the nurses also injected me with something that acts as a test for Tuberculosis. This is not normally necessary, but was advisory for anyone due to have a Lumbar Puncture - the injection site would show a reaction if I had been in contact at all with TB, but the reaction would take a few days to develop.

Shortly after this, Mitra arrived and by now, I was chatting with my sister Lee via Facebook chat. She suggested coming over and I thought it would be very welcome - Lee got on the case straight away and had flights booked for the following day.

Shortly after this, the orderly arrived with a wheelchair...apparently, patients are not allowed to walk, and so I was wheeled at speed to the X-Ray department for chest X-Rays from the front, back and also from the side.

Back to my room where Mitra and I chatted for a while and then the DR and a couple of his colleagues arrived with the good news...they were going to do the Lumbar Puncture next.
Mitra had to leave the room and then I had to roll on to my left-side, draw my legs up and tuck my head down.
The DR said they would use a local anaesthetic first (result!) and then the next feeling would be a small pricking...let me re-phrase that.
Hmm, anyway, I would feel the needle slightly.
Well, the DR was right and wrong. The needle part going in, wasn't the problem...it was the moving it about as he searched for a gap between my vertebrae.
For once, I was seriously annoyed at having "such a strong back", as the DR put it, because apparently it was making it very difficult for him to insert the needle where it could draw off any Spinal Fluid.

Three skin punctures, and nine overall attempts in the spine, had finally resulted in four tubes of what really looked like water.
During the course of this, I'd come close to vomiting twice and attempting to crush the hands of the nurse who was there to offer support.
I had a cold sweat and a headache. I had been warned beforehand that a lumbar puncture would result in a headache that would rapidly improve when I lie down...since I was already lying down (tumbada is the Spanish term, related I suppose to tomb...), I didn't hold out hope that the headache would improve at all.

Of course, once the nausea passed and I then sat up, the original headache had gone. I did get a few other, small headaches over the next few days, but nothing a paracetamol couldn't help with.

What issue I did have was local to the site of the lumbar puncture and was discomfort, rather than pain. Nothing I would recommend someone to do as a hobby, but not so bad overall.

Mitra was then allowed back in and I was told by the DRs to keep lying down for the next hour or so. The headaches that follow the lumbar puncture are caused by the decreased in fluid pressure in the spine and that the liquid is normally replaced within a few days.

They then brought me my lunch and I was really impressed! The soup, a classic spanish dish, was called sopa de marisco, and is basically a seafood/fish stew. Best soup I've ever eaten in a hospital at any rate :)

The next stage was the first dose of the corticosteroid which was to speed up the process of reducing the inflammation at the site of the lesions.
Of course, this means a catheter is inserted first...

The corticosteroids took about an hour and as it started, Mitra had to leave and collect our son from nursery.