Julie Copeland's story

Hi my name is Julie and I am 27 years old. I was 15 months old when I was sick with bacterial meningitis.

My mom relives this all the time when we talk about it. She told me that she laid me down for bed time after eating. When she came in to check on me I had thrown up everything I ate. She took me in right away.

The doctor told her that I had the flu and sent her home. Well the symptoms got worse and my mom took me to the hospital the next day. I was lifeless. They did 7 spinal taps on me. The fluid looked like watered down milk. I tested positive for bacterial meningitis. I ran a temperature of 104 degrees for 5 days. There was a lot of brain swelling.

They didn't know what damage it was going to cause if I survived.

Well here I am. I have neurological brain damage. I have learning disabilities. I had to relearn everything all over. I couldn't walk, talk, or hold my bottle, nothing. I wasn't able to walk without falling or running into something till I was 4.

Until this day I have problems with walking without running into something. I have lost part of my hearing in my left ear. I can hear loud noises just not low tone. I have headaches a lot. I suffer memory loss. I suffer horrible panic attacks and PTSD.

I'm trying to make sense of all of this. I don't know anyone else that has survived this. I have more issues I can't even begin to tell you. It would be nice to meet people that have survived this so I can ask questions and learn from their stories. I don't feel normal at all. It's hard to put in words what this deadly bacteria has done to me and I would love answers.

Sorry for this being so long. But this is the first I've spoken of it. Thank you for reading.

Julie Copeland
November 2014