A couple of things about the lumbar puncture. On the day I got the lumbar puncture, I made sure to drink a lot of water. I took a shower before the puncture because I couldn’t get my back wet for 24 hours. As directed, I laid flat for an hour or two after the puncture.

I did six rounds of EPOCH-R (similar to RCHOP but its a four day infusion). I had a lumbar puncture done each round and then two rounds of high dose methotrexate at the end. I got a clear scan a couple of weeks ago and am officially in remission, I also had stage IV DLBCL mine was also double expressor (why I think I got EPOCH instead of RCHOP). Good luck!

I had dose-adjusted EPOCH R (DA-EPOCH-R) with three lumbar puncture treatments of Methotrexate. The lumbar punctures were very uncomfortable.

I had a slight headache for a couple of months after chemotherapy. It was never determined conclusively but the headaches may have been a result of a small leak of the spinal fluid due to one of the lumbar punctures. At one point I had a epidural blood patch to seal a possible leak. I didn’t get immediate results but eventually the headaches stopped.

My husband has had 5 rounds of R-chop and 5 lumbar punctures with chemo. His pet scan came back clean and will have another one 8 weeks after last treatment.

Yes, I had the same treatment. 6 rounds R-chop and 4 lumbar punctures with chemo. Unfortunately, my PET scan did not come back clean. It showed new cancer.. Hodgkins. Trying to kill that with new rounds of chemo then a bone marrow transplant.