Sophie's World

Hello. I hope your daughter feels better. I stumbled across your web site while looking up spinal tap. It brought me to the day Sophie avoided a spinal tap. Her smile made me smile. Mine almost had one done yesterday at an ER and she too didn't get it done that day. It seems all the local and IV anesthetics in the world were not going to take the pain away. She's 14 and pretty tall, taller than me. So a lot depended on her cooperation. She endured about an hour of poking until the technician was the one who gave up and I was relieved. The devastation and guilt that came from that experience was too much. If it really needs to be done we're going with total anesthesia and xray to guide the needle. She/I cannot go throught that again. Anyway, she's here with a headache she's had for 3 weeks and we still don't know what's wrong. She's got many symptoms and a swollen optic nerve and that's all we know. They were suspecting pressure in the brain but unless she worsens or gets a fever no one seems to think that it's urgent. It's kept her out of school for 2 weeks and me out of work so far, with every specialist and tests not proving much. The tap would've been helpful to rule out meningitis also or lyme disease but we'll just keep an eye on her. Good luck to you and your family. This is a great idea to document your daughter's life. I spent a week writing down everything she ate for she has food allergies too and documenting every ache and pain. I'm still adding to the calendar of events but seeing this site of yours makes me think how much more organized and kept safe it would be to do it that way. Thanks for sharing.