ENCEPHALITIS CASES

Encephalitis Cases

Sophia

My name is Sophia, I'm a British woman, married to an American, living in Yateley, Hampshire, England, at the time my illness struck, in November 1987. I was 31 yo. I was incredibly lucky as my husband was in the USAF at the time,and if it wasn't for the intensive physical therapy I received at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington DC, I'm sure I would never have recovered to the extent I have.

I was medivaced from my British local hospital, Frimley Park, in Surrey, two months after lapsing into a coma for two weeks,during the night of November 26th 1987 (Thanksgiving Day). I'd been sent into hospital an hour or so earlier 'for observation' I woke up two weeks later in the neurology ward of Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London, I couldn't speak or move at all apart from being able to blink my eyes, twice for yes three times for no, I was kept at Atkinson for a month, while I very gradually started to be able to speak and move my left arm, then sent back to my local hospital, where the therapist told my husband, in front of me!, to find a nursing home for me as I was never going to get any better, I managed to tell him to contact the AF doctor, and within two weeks I was medivaced to WRAMC.

I could NEVER thank the doctors and therapists at that hospital enough, when I arrived there I still could not sit up unsupported. I spent six months there having 8 hours of therapy, 5 days a week, by the time I was released to join my husband and children (my husband had by this time been posted to an Air Base in California) I was in a wheelchair but could walk very short distances, with the aid of the wheelchair or a walker, I kept the wheelchair for exactly one month after leaving hospital, and progressed full-time to the walker, and kept getting stronger every day.

Now it's nearly 20 years since the coma. I can walk with a cane, very slowly, I also drive, which I didn't before the illness, using my left foot for the pedals. I do absolutely everything I did before I got ill, except run or walk fast. The only remaining neurological based 'problem' that I can think of is a very slight 'distance perception' when walking up or down slopes, strange to me because I'm fine on stairs as long as I have a railing to hold onto, I just fold my walker up and carry it up or down the stairs.

I will never forget the headache, my doctor insisted it been a 'severe migraine' even though I kept telling him I knew it wasn't. I'd had 'severe migraines' since I was 14, I wouldn't be able to stop throwing up all day, couldn't even keep a sip of water down, but they would only last the one day and the pain would 'move' around my head. This pain was right behind my left ear, I went to the doctor every day that week after fainting on the monday morning but no matter how strong the painkillers were they made no difference, then I fell into the coma in the early hours of Friday morning. I hope my story might be of some help to others, I wouldn't wish this illness on my worse enemy. I just thank you for allowing me to share my experience with you and others who are/or have been, in the same position.
GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL WITH YOUR RECOVERIES.

Sophia
U.K., U.S.A.

Posted: February 12, 2006

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