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| Steve |
My name is Steve W. I am 37 years old. I contracted Viral Encephalitis on August 21, 2000. I live in Hagerstown, Maryland.
After taking my children home, I was on the way back home and fell asleep and wrecked our
family van. I thought I fell asleep and crossed three lanes of major Interstate highway
and hit a guard rail. I woke up and caught myself scraping the rail. I was able to
call my fiancee and she talked me home. When I arrived home I talked to my fiancee Cyndi
and she asked me if I had hit my head and if I was wearing my seat belt. I did not hit my
head and was wearing my seat belt.
I had the flu the week before and in the middle of the week had a 104 temperature. I was
much better over the weekend and we just figured that I had pushed myself over the weekend.
At approximately 2:30 am I woke up screaming and yelling and Cyndi said I had blood coming
from my nose and mouth. She immediately jumped up and got the phone and called Emergency
911. They came within minutes but I had fallen asleep in the mean time. Cyndi has experienced
someone having a seizure before and she sort of knew what to do. They took me to our local
hospital and I had a CT scan and spinal.
After being at the hospital for about 3 hours I had a gran mal seizure. They moved me
immediately up to ICU after that. Cyndi had called my family to come in a be with her.
She did not know what was going to happen to me at this point. I was in the ICU unit and
they attempted to take me to have a MRI and I had another gran mal. Cyndi and my family
stayed by my bedside through the night to see what the day would bring. They sedated me
on the next day and took me down for another MRI. Nothing showed up on the CT scan, spinal,
or MRI. The attending doctor in ER was smart enough to start me on acyclovir right away
and this is probably why I am alive today. I stop having seizures on Tuesday and still was
not awake until Friday. When I woke up I continued to have seizures.
I had seizures all
weekend and on Monday, AM, family decided to move me to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
There I was put under a drug induced coma. When I was weaned off the drugs the next day I
seemed to be OK. I only had one small seizure on that Friday, September 1st. I have been
seizure free since then. Of course, I am on 200 mg Dilantin, three times a day. 90 mg of
Phenobarbital, two times a day. I do not remember my first three weeks in the hospital. The
fourth week was not much fun either. I was put in a straight jacket because I became
boisterous when I needed to use the restroom. My family at that point did not leave me
alone and they handled all my needs.
I did go to rehab for four days but they felt I would
do better at home. This is week 6 for me and I can be left at home during the day. I was
on a 21 day cycle of acyclovir and that had to be sent home with me for 4 days. I am so
happy not to have an IV and can move around without being told to go back to my room.
The sad thing about this is that Cyndi and I were to be married on September 9th and of
course, that had to be postponed. We have waited this long (7 years), she says what's a
while longer. I am curious to have others email me to see how they and their families
have coped mentally, physically, and financially.
Sincerely,
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Steve
Maryland, U.S.A.
Posted: October 5, 2000 |
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