Lauren Fitzgerald's story

In June 2014, I was taken into hospital and diagnosed with meningitis. I had been feeling fine up until 4 days prior to going into hospital. I was aching and had a lot of flu symptoms. I went to the doctors the next day and got told there was nothing wrong with me at all. Strangely, the day after I felt 100% back to normal.

In the early hours of the 3rd day, I was woken up by a most excruciating pain in my head. No words can describe the pain I was going through.

I carried on with my day at work but I began to be conscious of the fact I was very confused and mixing up words. I just put it down to the head pain. Late that evening, I fell against the wall and was very dizzy. Within that hour I was screaming in pain. The pain in my head had become so bad I couldn't actually move. My parents took me to A+E and I was rapidly worsening. I was struggling to stand up, sit up and walk. I felt as if my whole body was shutting down. I was admitted to the hospital and awaited a brain scan and a lumbar puncture.

One of the worst after effects for me is memory. I can rarely remember little things throughout the day. Some things may only be little but it is so frustrating when I keep having to ask myself, "where did I put that?", "have I done this?". I also have forgotten a lot of things prior to being ill. Almost as if my memory has been wiped.

Another big battle with an after effect is how my brain works, in terms of spelling or talking. Before being taken ill, I had started to build my perfect life and working so hard to achieve my goals. Now, I struggle to write, I struggle with spelling and constructing a sentence. Speech is also an issue, sometimes I don't make sense, I could be talking and use a random word in the sentence without realising.

Headaches are a concern to me now, every time I experience a different type of headache I worry myself and when I have these headaches, my after effects worsen. My memory is limited and I can't speak properly.

Not only am I suffering with the after effects of the disease, I am also struggling with the damage the treatment has caused me. During my stay in hospital, I had many cannulas inserted, which caused my veins to collapse and tissue to become damaged. I have little to no grip in my hands sometimes which really affects me when it comes to doing my job.

I am currently waiting for an appointment with a neurologist to help me deal with the aftermath and I'm doing all I can to continue with reaching my goals in life. I am so thankful for the help and support Meningitis Research Foundation has given me and reassured me everything I'm going through is normal. Meningitis awareness needs raising. If a doctor couldn't even recognise the symptoms then how could anybody else?

Lauren Fitzgerald
November 2014