meningitis & septicaemia can kill in hours!

People who are faced with meningitis and septicaemia have to act fast to help save a life.

Home Blog Please help, I think I have found answers to my life long concerns.

Please help, I think I have found answers to my life long concerns.

I just came across this website after searching for my increased health problems and worsening mental condition. I am 40 years old and contracted spinal meningitis when I was 3 years old in 1973. From what I have been told by my family, everything regarding treatment was experimental. I almost died a few times, underwent surgery because it spread to my left hip joint and had to be "scraped out." I was in isolation for several months, my family was told I would have brain damage. I kept fighting and then the doctors said I would never walk, then they said I may walk but it would be impaired. I spent 6 more months after being released on bed rest at home, which I FOUGHT against 24 hours a day everyday. Then the doctors said they thought I was "ok" but there would be future problems which they couldn't predict.

I spent my life at the top of my class, but always not being like the other kids (movements, rhythm, coordination, periods of missing important information, etc). I have a Master's degree in Early Childhood Special Education and I am a special education teacher. I specialize in autism, sensory integration dysfunction, movement disorders and serious behaviors. I felt as if my skills in these areas were instinctual-not textbooks which lead me to be more successful when the textbooks left other professionals scratching their heads.

I am currently being treated by a psychiatrist for increasing anxiety behaviors-scratching, excessive blinking, twitching of the left eye, blurry vision, joint pain, etc. I am a recovering alcoholic-sober for 388 days! I am monitored closely by my doctor and I participate in Cognitive Therapy and Dialectical Therapy. I feel relief with exercise, psychiatric medications and daily structure. But I am experiencing early menopause symptoms, increasing anxiety, blurred vision, increased obsessive habits, increased pain in my wrists with tingling in my hands and feet. I just feel like the meningitis is the cause I could never prove.

I can accept there may not be a "cure" but knowing that there is a reason would resolve anxiety. I can make plans and consult specialists if I need to. I have always been the patient with chronic medical problems that could not be determined with traditional testing. I got used to the phrases "probable" and "no significant lab findings regarding your complaints."

Can anyone relate?

Sent from my iPad

Posted in by Lisa Cochrun on 28 January 2013

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3 comments

Posted on 03 March 2013

Comment by martin devaney

i contracted meningococcal meningitis septiceamia as a 1yr old baby i lost my right lower leg and my lower body is just a ugly scar im 55 now and found out 2 days ago that this disease can damage the brain ive struggled with simple tasks and huge anger issues and last yr started getting huge dizzy spells vertigo i think that still come n go like no one told me i just thought i was a dummy with a bad temper , well i am only now i have a reason for it . i was sent home from kindergarten for hurting the other children i had fist fights all thru school n on the street as an adult im the only amputee in west australia to box against able bodied blokes and have ridden harleys all my life . but now with the vertigo back pain arthritis anxiety and depression im a burnt out dope smoking wreck which i just got busted for if it wasnt for the missus n kids id just fuckin neck meself too much pain

Posted on 04 February 2013

Comment by Karen Nielsen

WOW, I have been thru the same thing. I am 43 years old and when I was three I got spinal meningitis. I have severe headaches, my left hip wads replaced in April this year and I am pretty sure the other one will need done soon. I am a recovering drug addict 5 years now, depression,anxiety and not ever having very good impulse control plague me. My right ear rings constantly, the list goes on.....I attribute this to the meningitis. I go numb in my arms and neck now. It is good to know I am not the only one.

Posted on 29 January 2013

Comment by JoAnn Brethouwer

Lisa, I can. I posted today what I've been experiencing, and it's as if you wrote my story, but my recovery did not take as long as your's did.
I forgot to mention something. Four years ago, I had my gall bladder removed. It was considered an "emergency" because the pain I was experiencing was excrutiating, and they removed a perfectly healthy gall bladder!!! I was having a spasm like (cramp) that would not release. I haven't sued anyone, I should have, but I didn't. I was willing to do ANYTHING to make the pain stop.
This made my family distrust me. I was starting to think I was becoming a crybaby myself. Thinking it was not as bad as I perceived. I have been seeing a Therapist who encouraged me to seek another Neurological opinion, and I did.
Lisa, I hope you will follow the necessary steps to find your diagnosis. It's been a long time coming for me, but I'm determined to either put an end to this, or find out the truth and live with it.
You are not alone, like I felt I was. Stay confident and follow through. I am, no matter what, I am going to see this through.