Hi @jmhilde61 -

So sorry to hear you are experiencing issues. I hope the information below will help to explain why the diagnostic process included a spinal tap in my situation as part of attempting to diagnose CNS lymphoma. Hopefully your medical team will evaluate your neurological issues in the best way for your symptoms and be able to treat them.

My brain and body scans showed multiple tumors but the brain tumors were in inoperable locations for biopsy. So the spinal tap was done instead to try and collect cancerous cells in the cerebral spinal fluid.
The doctors explained to us before the spinal tap that it was a very low percentage that they would collect cancerous cells this way but they felt it was important enough to attempt.

So although the spinal tap was used as an alternate diagnostic test it did not actually yield cancerous cells for diagnosis in my case. Fortunately, the doctors were able to accurately diagnose the Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) from the tumors located elsewhere in my body.

The other factor that helped the doctors feel confident that the brain tumors were also this same lymphoma was the immediate reduction of all of the neurological symptoms I was experiencing after a very large dose of prednisone. Large doses of prednisone are included in one of the chemotherapy treatments (R-Chop) for DLBCL.
So my actual treatment plan alternated cycles of the Matrix treatment for the brain tumors with cycles of the R-Chop treatment for the body tumors.

Wishing you all the best with your diagnosis and possible treatments.