ENCEPHALITIS CASES

Encephalitis Cases

Steve

I fell ill in the early part of Jan. I was ill for several days before the onset of the illness, and getting worse by the moment. I was resting on the couch as I did not feel well, one of the plant lights came on, and I wanted to turn it off. I got up to do so, and I noticed that my right side was going limp, but still not completely gone. Then when I got to the light, I found that I could not turn it off. It was as if I could not figure it out. The options of pulling the plug, hitting the switch, or unscrewing the bulb did not even occur to me. I knew then that something was very, very wrong with me. I also noticed, as I spoke aloud that I was quickly losing my ability to speak, and what I did say, was gibberish, the words I spoke did not make any sense at all.

I slept through the night, my wife deciding to let me stay on the couch. I slept into the next day, and she wondered what was wrong with me. She decided that it would be best to take me to the hospital, which she did. At the hospital the real nightmare began. The condition was rapidly getting worse and I was beginning to lose consciousness. I went through two MRI's then the lights went out as I went into a coma.

A very strange thing happened at that point. I saw a number of very strange things. I could see my brain being "worked" on by someone with medical tools. What did I have? ADEM (Acute Disseminating Encypalo-Mylitus). Or more specifically, a form of brainstem encephalitis. No one knows what causes it, and there is no cure. It just happens and very, very few survive retaining all of their functions.

My prognosis did not look good. (In fact, I think that I am among the oldest survivors.) I survived it, coming out of the coma after 5 days. My right side was gone, could not use it. And my left-brain was in limbo, not able to comprehend where I was. It did not look good. But I tried to grasp where I was, and it soon became evident that I was in a hospital, with nurses around me. My right side was limp and gone, and I knew that this was the reason. As I probed my thought processes things began to come back. But I could not talk until 15 days after, and only in very broken sentences. Eventually, my linguistic skills are very good, but my math, and other math related skills are pretty much gone. And my right side is back, but it feels somewhat strange as at times it does not feel like it belongs to me.

I also found that the doctors had cut a 5.5-inch slit in my head to get a portion of my brain for analysis. I suspect that much of my problems might be due to this, but under the conditions that I was in, the doctors had no choice. They had to know, but nothing was found, which they said is typical of ADEM, or brainstem encephalitis. They never identified what I had, but the MRI indicated lesions in my brainstem.

Where am I now? I am coming back. Not fully here, but coming. I am a different person now, seeing things differently. It takes something like this to really change a person's perspective.

Brainstem Encephalitis is also referred to as Bickerstaff-Cloake Encephalitis. It is usually characterized by subacute (days to several weeks) development in adolescents and young adults of brain stem dysfunction, including ophthalamoplegia (can't move eyes). Facial palsies, sensory loss, dysarthria (can't speak right), deafness, and ataxia, and is associated with mild fever and an increased white count in the CNS. This entity may represent a mixture of true viral infections, post infectious syndromes, and the initial manifestations of multiple sclerosis.

Steve
Flagstaff, AZ U.S.A.

Posted: April 7, 2003

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