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| Ralph |
My husband, Ralph, suddenly lost his sight in one eye on 01-14-01. We immediately went to the local
hospital, and to make a long story short he was misdiagnosed and not treated for the H.S.E. encephalitis.
To complicate and worsen things, he is also on immunosuppresent drugs and his system had no
defense against the virus.
02-01-01 in desperation, we drove him to a hospital 65 miles away where he was immediately diagnosed
and treatment was finally begun but by then the virus was running rampant. He was completely disoriented
and had lost sight in one eye (permanently) and partial sight in his other eye. He also suffered seizures
during this time.
He was discharged after 8 days on home IVs, however, after 6 or 7 days the virus flared up again and
spread to the other side of his brain. He was hospitalized again for another week. We are now home
taking a myriad of medications, have home therapists coming in, and are dealing with the effects of this
disease daily. Ralph realizes that he is in a battle to try to regain his memory, his balance, and how to deal
with the mental deficits caused by the disease and delay of treatment. Dealing with the loss of sight
(completely in one eye, half in the other) has made his daily struggle even more difficult.
If there is anyone reading this that would like to talk with us, we would answer your e-mail.
Having this disease is hard enough, not having anyone to talk with that can understand what you are
dealing with is worse. We live in a rural area where something like encephalitis is something you read
about...not experience.
Update: Ralph was again hospitalized September 2002 with a form of viral encephalitis, and once again had to take the anti viral IVs for a week before returning home. He is continuing his battle against E.
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Mary Ann
Missouri, U.S.A.
Posted: September 2002 |
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