It is useful in detection of certain diseases. There is an urban legend that a spinal tap can detect past LSD use. This turns out to not be true, and even if it was, spinal taps are far too dangerous to be used for drug testing.
Adams, Jimmy (horn) 1965-66 Apso, Lhasa (vocals) 1965-66 Besser, Joe "Mama" (drums) 1982 Bond, Peter "James" (drums) 1974-77 Brixton, Tony (keyboards) 1965-66 Childs, Eric "Stumpy Joe" (drums) 1969-74 Clovington, Geoff (horn) 1965-66 Laine, Dicky (keyboards) 1965-66 MacLochness, Ross (keyboards), 1974-75 Pepys, John "Stumpy" (drums) 1964-69 Pettibone, Jeanine (tambourine), 1982 Pudding, Ronnie (bass), 1966-67 "Ricky from San Francisco" (guitar), 1982 Savage, Viv (keyboards), 1975-82 Schindler, Little Danny (harmonica, vocals), 1965-66 Scrubbs-Martin, Julie (vocals), 1965-66 Shrimpton, Mick (drums), 1977-82 Shrimpton, Ric (drums), 1992- Smalls, Derek (bass), 1967- St. Hubbins, David (guitar), 1966- Tufnel, Nigel (guitar), 1966- Upham, Denny (keyboards), 1966-68 van der Kvelk, Jan (keyboards), 1965 Vanston, C.J. (keyboards), 1992- Wax, Nick (keyboards), 1965-66 While David tells Marty DiBergi during the 1982 filming of This Is Spinal Tap that there had been 37 people in the band, only 20 have been documented. The lost 17 likely were short-term hires during the turbulent years of 1965 and 1966. In a 1992 interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Nigel mentioned that 12 drummers had preceded Ric Shrimpton, meaning that seven of the missing 17 were drummers. The current total stands at 42.
Despite the seriousness of this illness, I have only two memories of it:
1: Vomiting purple after eating a grape popsicle.
2: Recieving a lumbar puncture.
Now, this procedure saved my life, and I would never, ever want to deter anyone from recieving it if their doctor felt it was necessary. But just let me tell you what it was like for a five-year-old child.
They laid me down on the cold, paper-covered table. My own father couldn't bear to watch, but my mum was there, coaching me. The nurse forced me into a tight foetal position, holding my near-naked body with my head curled tightly against my knees and trying to reassure me.
Then came the anaesthetic.
The anaesthetic was undoubtedly the most painful experience of my life to that point, and I don't think I've experienced anything so painful since. And I mean, geez, that's the anaesthetic. I can only imagine how horrifically painful the tap itself would have been.
The anaesthetic needle created a sharp pain to shoot all the way through my body, radiating from my spine. I'm surprised I didn't pass out from that.
But you see, the anaesthetic doesn't kill sensation; it kills pain. So I was acutely aware of the sensation of the tap itself, the cold, hard shaft of steel sliding between my vertebrae and draining me of my life-juices. It didn't hurt per se -- my body was still reeling from the anaesthetic -- but I knew it was happening. I could feel the needle in my back, the grating of metal on bone. And it's a far larger needle than the anaesthetic had been.
That's when I passed out, probably from hyperventilation. When I came to, the nurse and the doctor were gone, and my parents were waiting for me. They took me to buy a toy dinosaur for my bravery.
Years later, I found out that I had actually had a second tap only a few days after the first. My mother was talking on the phone, and I ran to her, rubbing my body and screaming, "GET THEM OFF! GET THEM OFF!" -- at which point I collapsed unconscious. Hallucinations are, of course, one of the major symptoms of meningitis, but the strange thing is I don't remember it at all. I was rushed to the hospital, and recieved a second spinal tap operation, to which I was blessedly insensitive.
I suppose that what doesn't kill me makes me stronger. I can only imagine how much stronger that experience made me, a child of five, to know physical pain most people never experience. Although it exists to me now only as a memory, there are times when I draw strength from the knowledge that I survived such a life-threatening disease and dangerous operation without even realising the peril it posed me.
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