I was very sick a few months ago and they had no idea what was wrong with me (boy I love the medical community). My symptoms included a very high fever (104.5+), neck pain, and a lot of other weird stuff (dizziness, weakness on one side, inability to focus/think).
My wife took me to an urgent care and they sent me to the hospital. They were worried about meningitis. So of course once we got there the ER Doc did some work and wanted to do a spinal tap to check for meningitis.
Now if you every have the choice between a spinal tap or sitting on a flaming cactus, look into that second and less painful option. These things suck.
For those of you who don't know, a spinal tap (also know as Lumbar puncture) is where they make you sit up in the fetal position, expanding the space between vertebrae, and then they slowly stick a huge and long needle in your lower spine!
After the needle has penetrated your back muscles, with a powerful snap, it has reached your spinal fluid. Then they open up the back of the needle and allow spinal fluid to slowly drip out and they collect the stuff for testing. See more here: Wikipedia
Of course I didn't have meningitis, nor anything else they could test for with blood work or a head CT. Now my symptoms included major headaches (from spinal fluid loss), muscle bruising (from the spinal tap), and lots of other pain.
They eventually sent me home and I suffered for a few days until I got better. That is of course until I saw the hospital bill of > $10k.
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