ENCEPHALITIS CASES

Encephalitis Cases

Jenny

My name is Jenny and I live in Nashville TN and I was 38 the 1st time I got Encephalitis in 1996.They said it was post infection encephalitis. The Drs. said I had the flu and sent me home from the hospital 2 times and my family was at their wits end because I was totally out of my mind. The day after Christmas I fell out in the floor and they called an ambulance and they admitted me to the hospital. They asked my family if I was on drugs and maybe going thru withdrawal. They finally figured out that my brain was swelling and induced a coma. I was in the coma for three weeks in intensive care.

I was so out of it for 2 weeks after that they had to restrain me most of the time. They had told my family that I was either going to die or be in a nursing home for the rest of my life. After 40 days in the hospital and being unresponsive I woke up! My sister and my daughter were in the room with me and I said Latex Surgical Gloves. Those were my 1st words in 40 days. I was reading the label on a box of gloves that were by the bed.4days later I came home.

They sent me home with my feeding tube still in my stomach because they were convinced that I was not going to recover. Well I did but 8 yrs later I got Encephalitis again and went to the same hospital and despite my family's insistence and a nurse who had been there when I had it the 1st time I was diagnosed as bi-polar. So my family took me to another hospital and insisted on a spinal tap and sure enough I had it again.

It wasn't as severe as the 1st time but it wasn't fun. Amazingly I don't have any major damage. I have a real problem with numbers, I can see a number and know what it is but when i say it I say the wrong number. My memory really sucks; I forget things from one minute to the next. I just write everything down.

I feel so lucky, when I see the problems that some other survivors have that my problems are minute in comparison. I am convinced that I have herpes simplex E but the Drs. have never said that. Before I got sick the 2nd time I had a sore under my nose that would not go completely away for months. I have it again now and I'm kind of freaking out and the drs. up my antiviral meds to 5 times a day so hopefully that will keep it at bay.

Jenny
Nashville TN, U.S.A.

Posted: May 18, 2007

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