ENCEPHALITIS CASES

Encephalitis Cases

Jane Doe

My daughter contracted meningo/encephalitis in the 6th grade. That was 1999 in Massachusetts. She had been sick with the flu, then got well for a week or so and then got the flu again. We noticed her leaning to one side while watching TV, then as she walked down the hall she bounced off the walls which concerned us.

Her eyes did not look good, they had that distant look. Then she lost bladder control. All this happened within about 2 hours. We took her to the local hospital where they gave intravenous fluids and she began to recover. They did a lumbar puncture and diagnosed her with meningitis and possibly encephalitis.

We then transferred to Children's hospital. She was there for almost two weeks, going into a very intense critical care unit during part of this ordeal. From time to time she would lose control of arms or legs, and at one point would blink or squeeze our hand to let us know she meant yes or no to questions.

All the time we kept her laughing and told her throughout this that as the virus moved through her brain she would lose different functions, but they would return when the virus left her. That was obviously a best case scenario, but we weren't willing to accept anything else.

She recovered at the Franciscan hospital for Children, and came home within a few more weeks - or maybe about a month. She missed one full quarter of school and the final quarter she was there but not fully up to speed. We're thankful for the kind teachers she had.

She moved on to seventh grade without any trouble. In October we got her a flu shot to attempt to avoid a repeat performance, but this backfired a bit. She began having trouble picking up her leg and would have to walk around for a while to work it off. She would stand up in the middle of class or lunch and not remember doing that. All the while, she was not telling us this, we would hear it from some of her friends who were frightened for her. This went away and we haven't had any trouble like this again, and we do not get her a flu shot anymore. Fast forward to 11th grade and the migraines.

She missed most of her junior year of school due to migraines, but kept up with the class through hard work and tutors. During the migraines doctors had many ideas of what could cause this from depression to physical issues. They all seemed to prescribe more and more medicines for pain relief. When they didn't work we went the route of a counsellor.

She found my daughter to be a happy well adjusted kid. We managed to get her off the medicines and repeat a 24 hour ekg. This showed she had some fuzziness, and upon further investigation it looked like she never got into REM sleep.

A sleep study confirmed the diagnosis and she was prescribed a sleeping pill and told not to sleep during the day. There was a keep awake pill in case she needed it.

Two weeks later the pills were done and my daughter was on the road to recovery. She has stamina issues and is on a very strict sleep/awake schedule.

We try also to maintain a strict eating schedule as well. This seems to be working. She is a senior in high school and is making it to school more days than not. I'm sharing this story in case there is some link between the encephalitis and her migraines. Hopefully it will help someone.

Dad
Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Posted: August 7, 2002

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