Lewis Mandall (Ginny Lemon)’s story
Drag artist and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Lewis, also known as Ginny Lemon, shares their experience of viral meningitis.
James talks about having viral meningitis as a college student, and its continuing effect on his short-memory.
I’m a college student and on September 30th 2015 I got a headache that felt like just a stress headache. The next day it got worse and started to feel like a migraine headache. I took some meds and went on about my day but the meds didn’t work and by that night the headache got worse. I was at my girlfriend’s house hanging out with her and her family and my headache became unbearable. She gave me some ibuprofen which still didn’t help and when I got back to my dorm I lay down and fell right to sleep.
I woke up around 4:30 that Wednesday morning with a headache I couldn’t handle and was feeling sick to my stomach so I called a friend and he took me to a hospital nearby. They said I had viral meningitis. I was in the ER for about 7 hours with the nurses and doctors checking on me. They had to give me three spinal taps to make sure it was VM. I was in the hospital for about a day and a half.
When I was released it took up to a month to get rid of the headaches and about a week and a half to get rid of the nausea, but now my short term memory is being affected. I can study for hours for an exam the night before and not remember a lot of what I studied. I also forget things that I do about an hour after I do it. On top of it all, it also kicked my ADD into high gear. So, in two words, IT SUCKS.
I hate to hear that other people have had to deal with it. but then I'm also glad I'm not alone on this.
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Drag artist and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Lewis, also known as Ginny Lemon, shares their experience of viral meningitis.
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