ENCEPHALITIS CASES

Encephalitis Cases

John

In April 2006, I was an air charter pilot based in Madison Wisconsin. The first week in april I began waking up in the middle of the night with what felt like panic attacks that would go for hours relentlessly until the adrenaline stopped flowing and left me exhausted. Finally while on a short flight to Iowa I became so sensitive to the noise of the propellers I became very weak and shaky, I also had a strange smell in my nose as though I had been exposed to some sort of solvent and thought I had been poisoned. I called for a replacement pilot to relieve me upon landing, and was bound for the doctor, who told me I had a sinus infection.

I tried to explain that this sure didn't feel like any sinus infection I'd ever had before, but was sent home with antibiotics and decongestants. As the next several days dragged on I got progressively sicker, weaker shakier, dizzier and went to the ER where they ran a blood test that came back positive for mumps virus. I continued to get sicker and returned to the local ER several more times before being referred to a neurologist who couldn't make heads or tails of my symptoms so he referred me to the internist.

After what seems like about 6 weeks of being tested for everything from malaria to tuberculosis they finally did a spinal tap and it was supportive of Meningio encephalitis. My neurological problems such as sensitivity to light and noise, loss of smell, ringing the ears, dizzy spells, and adrenaline rushes, feeling feint and others occasionally start to subside, and when I almost feel awake and alive again they start to return for no apparent reason.

I have been to more doctors than in my previous entire life, including a psychologist who by the way said she doesn't believe I'm crazy although when I have my flare ups as I've come to call them I wonder if I will go crazy.

Some days are better than others. I can wake up one day weak in the legs , clumsy in the hands, and the next day I almost feel as though there's actually hope that this will end and I can go back to work, even though it probably won't be as a pilot. The worst I suppose is never knowing what tomorrow will bring, or even the next few hours.

I am currently making plans to see a neuropsychologist at UW Madison as nobody in my home town knows what to do with me anymore as all lab tests and Imaging come back either borderline or normal, the only visible symptoms are my progressive weight loss despite taking dietary supplements like boost. Someday's when I have a bad flare up I wish this disease would have taken me quietly in my sleep, but most days are marginally tolerable. I cling to the hope that from what I have been reading that it will just be matter of more time.

John
Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Posted: May 18, 2007

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