ENCEPHALITIS CASES

Encephalitis Cases

Ashley

Hi my name is Ashley. I am 25 years old, from Lynchburg Virginia. I have 2 children ages 3 and 5. My 2 angels!

I came down with "Encephalitis" in July 2006. One morning I woke up with a SEVERE HEADACHE. I started vomiting through out the day, and it was getting worse as the day was passing. No one was with me but my children. I thought it was just a 24 to 48 hour sickness maybe, but I knew that I had never had such a bad headache. It was an un describable type of pain.

When my mom got home that night she saw how sick I was. She took me to the hospital and they checked all my vital signs and everything was fine. I had no fever, blood pressure was normal, everything was fine....but I was still constantly vomiting along with a major Migraine headache. The hospital staff put me in the waiting room, I ended up waiting almost 8 hours. I was so sick and in pain.

I cant remember anything else after the nurses came and got me. All I can go by is what doctors and family told me. The doctors first thought I had "Meningitis" until they did a spinal tap. I had come down with a sever case of Encephalitis. The doctors gave me a 10% chance of survival , after a week or so they then gave me a 20% chance of survival. Because of all the medicine the doctors had me on, at one point I had stopped breathing, everything was going down. Doctors gave me an MRI and it showed that the left side of my brain was damaged. They said that it looked like a big "mass."

When I got out of the hospital I had to relearn how to talk, I had to go to speech therapy. and I had to relearn how to walk straight because I hadn't walked in so long. Its been 2 1'2 years now and the biggest thing I struggle with is memory loss, especially in Names and Numbers. I struggle with math and history as well. If someone tells me a person's name, I will forget it within 5 seconds. Its so hard to remember.

Before my illness I was 7 weeks from graduating cosmetology school. Now I am in the process of entering the cosmetology school all over again. I hope I can do it and achieve it. I cant learn things like I used too. Its so hard to stay focused, I have a hard time concentrating, learning, anxiety, etc.

Don't Give Up Hope. We are all here with you. You are not alone. If you need to talk you are more than welcome to email me.
GOD BLESS EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU!

Survivor, Ashley C.
Lynchburg Virginia, U.S.A.

Posted: Dec. 27, 2009

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