The Lumbar Puncture
Posted by: Admin on: November 19, 2008
Today is the lumbar puncture with the neuromuscular doctor. When all is said and done my daughter confesses that she had some slight discomfort, but announced that the procedure was much better than the second muscle biopsy. We spoke with the doctor prior to the procedure, and my daughter had a quick physical exam. Her strength has improved, some reflex is still reduced, but he is very happy with her strength. There is a possibility of another MRI, this would be of the lower back, but that decision will be made once he receives the results of the CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) which could be a week or more. She is going to start to be weaned off of the prednisone; this is something that will be done over the next six weeks. So we had some questions:
- Chance of a relapse? The doctor said that was hard to say. From what they know, about 15% have had relapse in GBS but nothing is guaranteed. If she did have a relapse she would know much sooner and could do an IVig booster.
- Was this still an immune issue? The doctor said yes.
- I asked about the possibility of this being CIDP (chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy) and not GBS? The doctor said that it was entirely possible, they’re very much the same. We would have to wait to see if she has a relapse, and another relapse. IVig booster would be done in this case also.
The appointment was over and he said he’d call when he knew the results. We left for the lab for additional bloodwork, some antibody tests used in diagnosing this.
Tags: biopsy, booster, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, CIDP, CSF, discomfort, gbs, hereditary, immune, ivig, lumbar, mri, muscle, prednisone, puncture, rare, relapse
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