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| Kami |
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My story, unlike some of the others that I have read or heard about, has a good ending. I was diagnosed with encephalitis in March of 1996. I was about 8 weeks pregnant at the time. It all started after I came back from a business trip. Upon my return my co-workers and my family noticed that I had flu-like symptoms and my hands were shaking uncontrollably and I had a flushed face. It soon got worse. I started doing strange things such as sitting in our back yard in the middle of the night, in the snow, staring up at the sky. I took our dog for a walk very late and ended up at my parents house, much to their surprise. By this time, my husband was very worried. He decided to take me to the hospital. When we were walking to the car, I started running down the street. He caught up to me and managed to get me in the car and rushed me to the Emergency Room. The first prognosis was that I was just dehydrated, but they quickly changed their minds when I started hallucinating and lashing out at the doctors and my family. Finally, the doctor on-call told my husband that I needed to be medi-vaced to Seattle because they needed to know exactly what was going on.
We arrived at the Virginia Mason critical care unit very early in the morning. I was getting steadily worse, and they couldn't give me any medications because of my pregnancy. My husband had to make the most difficult decision ever, either keep the baby and risk severe birth defects and I probably die, or terminate the pregnancy so I would have a chance of surviving. My husband told the doctors that he wanted his wife back. After they terminated the pregnancy, things were up and down. I contracted pneumonia twice, and was in a coma for a month. One day I would be making progress, then back to ground zero the next. The doctors never knew what to expect from one day to the next.
By mid-June, the doctors thought I was stable enough to be released from critical care. I was transferred to Good Samaritan Rehabilitation Center in Puyallup, Washington. I basically had to learn to talk, walk, and even eat all over again. Every day I was trying to get a little piece of my life back. Some of the doctors wanted my husband to find a long-term care facility to put me in, but my husband would have nothing of it. He told the doctors that home is where I needed to be! I was released from Good Samaritan August 21, 1996 and came back home. The doctors said it would take approximately 2 years to even come back to my job. I started working 1 month after my return. I started part-time, and was full-time within 7 months! The recovery process took quite some time, but I had the most wonderful support system ever. My family looks at life in a whole new light now. We live life to the fullest, and enjoy every minute. My husband and I are looking forward to having a family and are closer now than we have ever been.
Yes, I had the baby on February 17th, 2000, a boy, 9 lbs 12 oz!! He is a big one. His name is Erik Joseph F. He is doing very well and growing every day.
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Kami
Juneau, Alaska U.S.A.
Posted: June 29, 2000 |
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