Pharmer.org

I recently was given the joyous (not) experience of a Spinal Tap in the ER to r/o Meningitis. Even thought I have spent years in Emergency Medicine as an EMT I, the thought to lie flat when I got home never crossed my mind, I was flying too high from the Dilaudid & MS they gave me. A day and a half later the headache hit & I thought I was gonna die. Unless you have had it you CAN NOT imagine this pain. They gave me 10 mg Percs, Midrin, Naprosyn & Had me drink a lot of coffee in the ER. The Caffeine is supposed to help with the vascular issues. If I was flat on my back, no pain. If I was even a little upright, OWWEEE. The narcs helped a little but in my husband brought me some Jet Alert Caffeine tabs, 200mg, & after taking those every few hrs. the pain was gone the next day. This is just a suggestion to anyone else going through this, I looked all over on line when I could sit up for a few minutes & found nothing to help me so I'm passing this info along in case it can help someone else. Godd luck, and the pain WILL go away...eventually.

Yes i know the pain. I had an 11lb baby naturally and still claim the headache was worse than that. I had to go back to the hospital for a Blood patch . Instant relief. The doctor prepares your spine as if to do another s/t at the same time a nurse draws your blood then gives it to doc who injects it in your spine. Instant relief. The headache is spinal fluid leaking. The blood patch forms a clot over the leak. Isn't medicine one of the most interesting things?  

Hubby is on his way to the drug store as a result of your suggestion.  I'll keep you posted whether or not it works.  I had to return to the ER the following eve of my spinal tap and received Tylenol & Codeine (pain), Reglan (headache) and Ativan (tension) pills.  The following morning, my die-hard headache returned and I could not move my neck.  I too thought something was terribly wrong.  Because I had minimal movement in my neck and couldn't look up or down, I went to see a Chiropractor this time.  It was a fruitful visit because I had a T3, T4, L4 and L5 pinching nerves.  During the second attempt to align my T3/T4, the headache felt as if it popped off of my head.  Actually, it completely disappeared.  I thought WOW!  That must have been the source of my headache and now I can resume living la vida loca!  Alcatraz tour -- here I come!!!  WRONG!!!!  New morning in front of the computer, and there it strikes me suddenly.  Sharp pains in the head and I feel my morning's breakfast begging to change the color of my carpet.  IT'S BACK!!!!  For the first time, I hear myself say, I'm dying.  But hubby smarter than me, looks up spinal tap and comes across your comment.  I'm sure it will work.  At the very least, my house will probably be superbly clean from being pumped up on all the caffeine.  I will try the blood patch thingy next if caffeine is unsuccessful (it kind of makes sense as I'm a diabetic and slow to heal/patch, and you would think the ER would have given me that as an option -- Oh well.).