I have one scheduled for Monday, im hoping I will feel better. Ive never had one. Im kinda nervous.

It really is a "piece of cake". No real pain after they give you the med to numb the area. I've had my share of them. I have also been very lucky and have never had the notorious spinal low pressure headache afterwards either. Today my back is a bit sore but I can handle that......

im hoping to feel better, even if its for a little while.

I started out with severe vision losses and headaches that were misdiagnosed as migraines. When I finally got the ptc diagnosis they sent me for a lumbar puncture. it offered no relief. one night I had a headache so bad I went to the ER and they did another puncture. that in combination with IV pain meds gave me some relief. I then finally allowed them to put an lp shunt in my spine. the first one failed so they did a third puncture and my pressure was 37 and they said there is no way my pressure could be that high with a shunt so they did some xrays and found the tubing had pulled out so they did a whole other surgery and replaced the shunt. its been since dec and I have been symptom free with the exception of when I first wake up I still have a faint heartbeat noise in my ear but as Ive been up it goes away. that lets me know the disease is always there and that I only have surgical relief. These shunts are notorious for going bad over time so I dont know what they will do next. The punctures are uncomfortable but they numb you up pretty good so mostly what you feel is pressure and sometimes you can feel a weird sensation when they move the needle around. To put your mind at ease its not severely painful just uncofortable. You can ask your dr to prescribe something to calm your nerves to take an hour before the procedure.

oh and about asking for something to calm your nerves... just from my experience valiume isnt worth a damn. I would ask for either xanax or ativan.