HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Question about Spinal Taps

Support Forums
>
Lyme Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 12/30/2011 12:30 AM (GMT 0)
You can follow some of my history on other posts. Here's a brief rundown:

Bitten in early June 2011

Spinal Tap mid June at ER. Very difficult for doctor to do (i almost passed out), so they had to call the anesthesiologist. Even he had a hard time taking fluid.

Results come back negative for meningitis.

Had multiple tests ruling out every other possibility, but the neurologists at the hospital did say that I did have symptoms that were consistent with a CSF leak that likely repaired itself (I do not have the CSF symptoms anymore).

Finally diagnosed with Lyme end of August.

Is aseptic meningitis and lyme meningitis the same thing?

Could results for aseptic meningitis/lyme meningitis be negative from a spinal tap in mid June because it was too early for the Lyme to migrate into my CNS?

Should I have another tap?

I wonder because the symptoms I have seem to be close to aseptic meningitis (or temporal arteritis which i am discussing in a separate post). These are the only symptoms.

Thoughts? Questions?
Posted 12/30/2011 1:51 PM (GMT 0)
Hi April,

The term meningitis simply means "swelling of the meninges". The meninges is the covering of your spinal chord and brain.

The swelling can be caused by a number of different things like malaria, Lyme, and the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis (aka meningococcal), to name a few.

The meningitis that we hear most about (because it can be fatal if left untreated), is the one caused by the meningococcal bacteria. The infection is actually in the spinal fluid so is termed septic meningitis. The diagnosis is made by looking at the spinal fluid.

Lyme causes aseptic meningitis, which is not actually an infection of the spinal fluid. It is merely a symptom of the disease. While the symptoms are very uncomfortable (man, what an understatement!), they are not life threatening and will go away with treatment.

While a spinal tap would reveal a case of meningococcal meningitis, it is not much help for diagnosis of Lyme disease. There could be Borellia bacteria (the bacteria that causes Lyme) in the spinal fluid, but odds are the won't be detected. The danger and complications -- which you have seen -- of a spinal tap make it a very unwise choice for Lyme diagnosis.

Short answer: No spinal tap. You have already been diagnosed -- just get on with treatment.
Posted 12/30/2011 2:13 PM (GMT 0)
Good info. Thanks.

So what's the treatment for aseptic meningitis?
Posted 12/30/2011 2:57 PM (GMT 0)
As I said above, aseptic meningitis is caused by Lyme disease. Treating the Lyme disease will make the meningitis go away.

Good news, right?!

Have you started treatment yet?
Posted 12/30/2011 3:14 PM (GMT 0)
Oh yeah, 11 weeks of doxy. Feeling much better now, just trying to get rid of this nagging sore temple symptom (which is not fun). Actually felt wonderful the fourth week off doxy but I pushed myself too much exercising and the inflammation/sore temple thing acted up again. I put myself back on doxy but just didn't feel any better so stopped after two weeks on. Felt better within 24 hours. Trying not to exert myself and get back to where I was the month after not being on doxy. So I guess you could say I'm in a testing phase now.

Had literally no sleep last night which certainly doesn't help matters. Lots on my mind though.

I have my first LLMD appointment on January 12th.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply