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| Kaylene |
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Hi. My name is Kaylene and I had encephalitis when I was 6 years old in 1983. I am 24 now with a family and a two-year-old son.
I'm still not sure what kind of encephalitis I had. I think it was viral. The doctors could not find out why or how I got it. I remember very little about my childhood after I contracted this disease. These are the things I remember when I was sick. I remember being at home and going to the bathroom every five minutes. I couldn't keep anything down. Seeing my bed of fire, seeing double {my eyes were literally crossed}, going to the hospital for an MRI and getting sick before they put me through that big machine, and I remember the nurse kept on waking me up to take my blood pressure. Oh and I remember my dad staying with me in the hospital sitting in a rocking chair. I just remember those exact things and nothing in between. My mom just told me a few weeks ago that I was pretty sick and they gave my parents the option to have half of my brain removed because of the swelling. They declined because science wasn't as sophisticated as it is today. I am lucky God spared me, but I suffer the effects of the kind that I had.
I can't seem to find the exact kind I had and I need to know the long-term effects. Right now I have a learning disability. I have trouble with word problems and I get real frustrated. I can't understand how to count money back for change and I can't do multiplication facts. I can't keep it in my memory. I have unexpected mood swings---I go from nice and sweet to a total bit**. My husband gets really frustrated with me all the time and I end up getting emotional. I did graduate with a B average though. Surprisingly. I got made fun of all the time in school because it took me longer to understand the concept of the work than it did the other kids and the teachers said that I wasn't paying attention. I was laughed at and was called a slow learner. That was traumatic to me because it was the truth. In third grade I had to move my desk to the front of the class next to the teacher because she said that I was lazy and didn't want to learn. I was mortified.
I still get frustrated to this day. I get these awful migraines and my words sometimes get jumbled together when I talk. If anyone has had the same signs that I had and have now, please feel free to e-mail me. I need to know the exact kind if encephalitis I had and I need to know the long-term effects that I will suffer in the future. I need to know for sake of my son.
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Kaylene
Cohutta, Georgia, U.S.A.
Posted: November 9, 2002 |
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