My name is John, I'm 46 and from the New Forest England. I was diagnosed with Viral Encephalitis in 2000.
I don't know what to say, I'm still a bit slow, but after reading some of the other stories I guess I got off light. I work permanent Nights in aerospace engineering. I had gone off to work as normal back in March 2000, and had the feeling that I had got something in my eye, as it was starting to blur up a bit and feel weak. I ignored this and through the week it had not gone away, but affected the left side of my face until one of my workmates had thought I had had a stroke, and called in the manager who then sent me home. A doctor was called, and he diagnosed a Bell's Palsy. After 8 weeks of this I was sent to Hospital for further investigation, and that was the first time I had heard of Encephalitis.
I had three mmr scans and one lumbar puncture, I couldn't touch my nose as I had lost some co-ordination, I had headaches and felt tired all the time. After eight months I was allowed to go back to work.
It was great to be back. I had to work days, until they were sure I had recovered. On my first day back, I was at my normal machine, running off a job that had been previously set by someone else, and had no problems.... or so I thought! When the job I was running had finished, I had to make a new setup and I ran into all kinds of problems. I couldn't remember what to do. I had worked these CNC machines for years, and I didn't have a clue. I got angry at the machine, my workmates, and myself until I just froze and stared at the computers totally confused. They took me off the machines and thankfully kept me employed by giving me another type of work not involving machinery. As this was new, I had no problems learning this new skill. It was as though the whole work area of my memory had been erased, I felt totally useless. I have found now that nothing was erased, all I needed was a reminder from one of my mates and I could re-learn a particular task. I am now back on the machines, not doing the precision work that I was use too, but gradually trying to re-learn everything I forgot (with a little help from my friends), and slowly its working.
I still have some problems. I get very restless, find difficulty in relaxing and have a very annoying stutter from time to time. I have a lot of headaches and the base of my skull feels like its attached to a lead weight, I find it hard to focus on things and sometimes feel as though I'm in limbo. My family does not understand any of my difficulties, they say that as I have been discharged from the hospital and allowed back to work, I am cured and there is nothing wrong with me. So I go it alone, and hopefully, will eventually get myself back to the way I was before Viral Encephalitis came to me.
