ENCEPHALITIS CASES

Encephalitis Cases

Wendy

In 1984 I woke up one morning and decided I didn't want to go to school. I was a sophomore in high school at the time. I went into the front room, noticing that it was difficult to walk. I assumed I was just tired, as I woke at about 5 a.m. every morning and always have. My mother came out and ate breakfast and got ready for work. She for some reason had not left for work (extremely unusual) when, at 11 a.m., she walked into the living room where I was still lying watching TV. She asked if I was OK and though I tried to respond that I just felt like I had the flu, my speech came out garbled and unintelligible. My mother was immediately upset enough to call the hospital, and I made my way back to my room to put some clothes on. I remember having trouble getting back out into the front room.

We drove to the hospital and I lost my memory at about halfway through the parking lot. I have been told that I tried to fight the nurses off when they tried to take my blood. Which makes sense, I have always been deathly afraid of needles. I was in that coma for a week and a half and after that I went home. My ability to walk was not affected at that time. One thing I remember as clear as day was that I had a home nurse coming once or twice a week and giving me an IV. On the day that the school dance was scheduled, (which was to be my first appearance back at school), he rigged up something that looked like I still had a needle coming out of my arm with iodine stained around it. It was probably my idea. I have a lot of friends who are into science fiction and I thought they would enjoy that. I was wrong, at the dance absolutely everyone ignored me.

I began having migraines pretty regularly, and within a month was in another coma. I don't remember anything of that time except the dance and visiting a ceramics store where I fell and almost knocked over an entire shelf of ceramics. The woman was very nice about that, so my mother must have let here know my medical condition. But she definitely did not think this was the right place for me to be at the time, so I had chosen an astrology plate at random and my mother bought it.

Within a month I was in another coma, which lasted about four months. What I first remember was waking in the hospital, my sister was next to the bed and I just looked at her and asked if we had any Crispix and if I could baby-sit my nephew, who was three, that weekend. She laughed and my next memory is of waking up in the rehab unit I was in for about five months. I remember specifically one day when we were working on the mats and the therapist was just telling jokes, or rather just saying things I thought were funny. At one point I laughed so hard I wet myself, and he stumbled all over himself apologizing. I thought it was wonderful anyway, I had forgotten how to laugh and this man had just given me reason to.

When I went home I was still in a wheelchair. I insisted on continuing therapy, though my mother kept saying I didn't have to go. She was happy I was alive and had been told by many doctors that I would probably never walk again. But, hey, she had also been told I would never come out of the coma.

I remember Reva, my physical therapist, although at the time I did not like her at all. Everything I was doing was so hard at the time. I was also in speech therapy. After learning to walk I attempted to return to school and we fought tooth and nail to get back in school. I remember one meeting at school in which I spoke up for myself and read a poem. The school had been trying to put me in special education classes. After I spoke and read the poem the head of that department said he wouldn't take me that I didn't belong there. I remember thinking this was a good thing but what if they don't let me go anywhere else? They tried not to. It is now approximately 12 years after my comas. I kept a journal of how people treated me and my own thoughts during the time I was on home study, which I did before going back to school. I am hoping someday to find a publisher for it.

I now have a BA in Journalism and have just completed 18 months as a VISTA. I do have a learning disability in math and my brain has restructured itself tremendously. I was incredibly lucky, but I remember wanting to kill every person who told me how lucky I was right after the coma. I lost every friend I had. My own mother didn't want me to learn how to walk (something I have just discovered recently) and the world has never been the same since before my comas.

But, on a brighter side, I have a much deeper understanding of life now. The little things mean so much more to me now, and who knows if I ever would have finished high school much less college before the illness. My grades were all D's and F's before the coma, and straight A's and B's after. I did not finish high school, I dropped out and enrolled in jr. college due to my difficulty with math. I now have a GED, acquired after college.

Anyway this is my story I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Wendy
Sacramento, California U.S.A.

Posted: July 3, 2000

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