When to give up?

Hi all,

Had and LP last Wednesday and have been plagued with what looks like a post-puncture headache. Head wasn't too bad initially, pain relief calmed it (if anything my back was sorer probably due to 3 misses - don't know how that happened as I am very petite!) but nausea has been the biggest problem and unrelenting. I've had Thursday off, went home early on Friday and today. Today was a longer day at work (I work part time) and towards the end I just felt like ripping my head off. I was good and took pain relief in the morning and again at lunch but the lunchtime dose did not help at all and things just kept getting worse and worse. Came down and had a lie down and feel a little better.

I don't know how long I should wait/put up with such misery before I go to my doctor and get antiemetics - I've lost quite a bit of weight and really cannot afford to lose any more so nausea needs to stop (I can take pain better than nausea). I feel miserable and I have an EEG on Friday that I have to sleep deprive myself for and can't bear the thought of that at the moment, but at the same time I don't want to feel silly going into the doctor making a "big deal" out of this and be told to wait it out. I can put up with it if I don't have to function. I feel so bad taking more time off work, especially knowing I have the EEG on Friday.

Any of you have experience(s) with LP? Should I tough it out for a couple more days or give up and ring the practice tomorrow?

Thanks.

Yep. They give you a local and if they had gotten in straight away then I think it wouldn't be too bad. Problem is, they dug around my back for 30-40 minutes and naturally would have hit certain parts that weren't as well anaesthetised as others so I'm not sure my assessment of pain wouldn't be very accurate I'm afraid!

Nausea can be associated with the post-LP headache, amongst several other things; it is documented in literature. I don't recall reading about it in the stock standard patient info sites, but I work at the university so it is my instinct to read literature.The weird thing was that I got incredibly bad nausea before the headache (thought I was going to reintroduce my dinner onto the dinner plate at one stage) well before I had taken any funny meds. I had only taken paracetamol at that stage which I have had no problems with for my entire life. In the days following that, I thought I'd be good/kinder to myself and did add an NSAID to that (ibuprofen or naproxen). One night I took paracetamol which had a little codeine in it, but that was more for my back. Sleeping probably did more good for my head & nausea than the drugs. Again, I've taken codeine before and never had any problems apart from constipation.