Drinking water before spinal tap

Hi Suzanne, I know that there are several people on this site that did not have elevated protein levels. Kevin had water and McDonalds before his first spinal tap. For his second one while in the hospital, he had lots of water as he was getting his ivig. I asked if the ivig itslef would alter the results and they said that just one dose would not make a difference, if the protein was elevated ivig would not change that within a 7 hour period. So I would guess that water would not alter the results. Dawn 😮

Unfortunately sometimes spinals do give a false negative, its just one of those ‘things’ 🙁 . I cant answer about eating or drinking anything, I was never asked if I had eaten or had anything to drink, and to be honest, I dont recall hearing anyone else mention it.

When my daughter had a spinal it was about 24 hours into the onset of symptoms and it did not have elevated protein although she’d gone from feeling weak, to not being able to stand w/out holding someone, to not being able to walk at all on her own in that time frame.

It bothered me too, mainly because it threw the diagnosis into question in my mind. Doctor across the street saw us after we came home from hospital and started asking questions about everything. When I told him the spinal was negative but they dx GBS, he said, well then that can’t be right! It’s always elevated! Which made me a little crazy and got me questioning the dx again. But the neuro assured me he was certain on his dx, taking all factors into account (symptoms, etc) and from everything he’d ruled out: it is GBS. (The same neighbor also assured me, if it was GBS, daughter should be better by now. This really isn’t helpful input for my daughter, who knows she is trying to walk but that it just hasn’t come together yet). I am learning to ignore such input.

In any case, the non-elevation of the spinal fluid protein did lead my neuro into thinking it was resolving on its own and no need for ivig. Which in turn has led to a slower recovery…but that is water under the bridge. She is recovering, just really really slowly!

The more I read the more I realize how many variables there are w/ GBS!

I hope you are doing well with your recovery!

I was drinking right up to my spinal tap and I showed elevated protein levels and I was advised to keep my fluid intake up as much as I could.

When I was first admitted to the hospital because I had drop foot and was having difficulty walking they did a LP and the results came back normal. My neuro thought GBS or 4 other possible things, the other 3 things were ruled out via MRIs and blood tests and when the normal results came back he thought it was just a delay for the high protein levels so 2 days later I got another LP at which time I had partial paralysis in my entire body and had to have someone feed me and of course had no reflexes anywhere. My LP came back normal again. This was 2 days into IVIG treatment too by the way… then at 1 week after the day I was admitted my face was paralyzed and I had completed 5 days of consecutive IVIG treatments continuing to get worse so I was transfered via Ambulance to the Mayo Clinic. Once I got down there they did another LP and my proteins were through the roof… so I was at the point where I was unable to get out of bed to shower, had pralysis through my body and over a week past onset (I went to the ER 2 days after my first symptoms of numb hands) before my proteins showed elevated, so yes it can take time even when your symptoms are bad.