This one goes to 11. And stays there.
File this under Things You Don't Ever Want to Do.
Bright and way too early Monday morning, we drove to the OSU MS Clinic in Columbus, where I was to have a lumbar puncture (better known as a spinal tap) done. This is a procedure where they first numb your lower back and then stick a long needle into your spinal column, suck out a bit of the fluid, and send it to a lab to be analyzed. YUCKAROOTIE.
Actually, it wasn't bad at all. I didn't feel a thing, and it took all of five minutes, max. Then I stared at the ceiling for an hour (to make sure the rest of my oil wasn't draining out) and went home after (I love this part) being instructed to drink lots of coffee.
All was well until about four hours later, when I developed the Headache from Hell, a full-blown migraine complete with sensitivity to light and sound as well as balance problems. This is apparently a well-known side-effect of the procedure, so I wasn't surprised, but I had been warned against taking aspirin (bleeding, you know). So I figured I'd just tough it out by whimpering on the bed for a few hours.
It didn't get better. It got a lot worse. It felt like someone was pounding the top of my head with a Louisville Slugger. I was also strangely sleepy.
Now the truly bad part: this lasted for three more days. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I had a blinding headache that Tylenol and Motrin barely dented. I was totally dysfunctional. The only relief came from lying flat on my back, so I spent hours on the couch in my office watching TV.
As of now, it seems to be going away, but I still have a rather bad headache centered behind my right eye.