Melanie's viral story

I went on a one-week holiday to Northern Queensland and the night I arrived with my family my daughter and I both appeared to have the flu. Nothing major, just a flu feeling, however my daughter appeared worse than me. Over the week I got worse and the person I was sharing the room with said that I moaned all night. On the Sunday when I woke to come home, I was vomiting and felt really unwell.

I was very ill on my journey home, which took approximately four hours. I was sick all the way (literally vomiting); my daughter was also still unwell. When I arrived home my husband was concerned and took me to a doctor. The doctor checked us both, gave us a shot for vomiting and a shot for the nausea. The doctor said my daughter wasn't too bad but I was extremely dehydrated. The doctor said if we were no better in the morning we should be brought straight back, but we should definitely drink something and try and eat something when we got home. I couldn't keep water down and definitely couldn't eat anything, but my daughter drank a little and managed to eat a little.

The next morning I woke and felt worse than the day before, however my daughter was much better. I told my husband I had a shocking headache and felt really, really ill. My husband took me back to the doctor who checked me over and asked me to do a number of things. The doctor was very concerned and I was admitted to hospital. I had a lumber puncture performed and viral meningitis was confirmed.

I was in hospital for seven days and kept on a drip (I was still not eating) and given pain relief injections regularly. The pain was bad and at the time, although I've always been afraid of dying, I couldn't care less if I died, as long as the pain was gone.

When I was discharged from hospital, I felt no better, but there was nothing more that could be done. However I was at least able to open my eyes by this stage, but was extremely weak and my head was still thumping as badly as it was when I was admitted. The specialist told me that I should just go home and have complete bed rest and return to see my doctor the next week, there was nothing more that could be done. I was discharged with pain relief medication.

I kept attending my doctor regularly and was given Panadeine Forte, which I lived on. I was told there wasn't much else that could be done. I noticed that I had intermittent paralysis. It affected my left arm and right side of my face. It was spasmodic and lasted for only 10 - 15 minutes each time. The doctor said that it would improve and resolve with time.

After approximately 2 months I said to the doctor the pain in my head was so bad and I was still so unwell that all I did was lay in bed and move periodically to the lounge and back to the bed. I slept quite a bit but I still felt really unwell. I also noticed I had sore shoulders and neck and couldn't stand to have my head touched. I didn't go to the hairdressers because I was so worried about how much it would hurt.

I had acupuncture for the tight shoulder and neck muscles and also massage, but it would happen time and time again.

I had many side effects for a considerable time, including lethargy, sore shoulders and neck and when I got run down I would immediately get a 'meningitis headache' (which is extremely difficult to describe, but took me straight back to the time I contracted the disease). I seemed to get every cough and cold going around, when all my life I had been fit and well.

When I was feeling well enough to leave the house I tried to find out how long it would take until I felt normal again and the pain would stop, because I began to feel this was never going to happen. However when I started to search for information there was very little
literature available. Everything I read was very broad and basically told you what meningitis was, but not what you could expect. This was extremely frustrating, because I couldn’t get answers from the doctors or the very limited reference material available.

It has been a very difficult and trying time and I could not say I am back to 100%, I would probably say that since that time the best I have felt is 50%. Not knowing what was going to happen is very frustrating. It's not like an illness where you finish the course of antibiotics and you’re cured; for me it’s ongoing and I feel at this stage that it will be for the rest of my life. I am definitely more aware of my body now. I am very conscious of what I eat and maintain a balanced diet. I try to maintain regular exercise, such as walking and swimming. But mostly I listen when my body tells me I’m tired and don’t push myself further than I should, otherwise I end up in bed for a week or so with a terrible headache and extreme lethargy. My doctor explained to me that this is something I will have for the rest of my life to some degree, so I know I must take care of myself.