Your experiences please: Four and half month post TB meningitis

[aujjaju]

Hello friends.

Greetings for a blessed day. This is Anuj from India. One of my 21 years old female friend contracted with TB Meningitis in July 2013. Right then she went unconscious and after the right diagnosis she started to improve. She was discharged from the hospital after one and half month or two months when her condition was stable. When she came out of hospital she was on NG tube feeding, was unable to talk, Was unable to sit on chair, was unable to walk..But with the constant care of her parents and prayers, She can now eat good with her mouth, She can talk well but she remains silent for most of the time and only responds when someone ask her something or someone talks to her. She has few issues now. She still has stiffness in her limbs and specially in right hand and left leg, they are really painful when she try to stretch them, She sometimes tries to open them but feels a great pain so she start to cry. Because of this she has a fear of walking so whenever she want to go to urinate she start to cry because of this fear of pain. She also has some bladder and bowel incontinence problem, Poor memory attention and recognition, she however recognize people correctly sometimes but then sometimes she recognize them as someone else. She is also missing her periods for last four months since when she contracted with this disease but before that she used to get them correctly.

All of you have been from this critical situation. It is very stressful for me to see my best friend in this condition. Kindly tell me how well is she recovering in this four and half month of time. Kindly share your experience and tell me what can i do to help her recover good and make her live her life again.

[vasco]

Hi my dear

So sorry to read your story. I had bacteria meningitis 2yrs ago. I was in hospital for 9 months and suffered many disabilities and complications of which I'm still dealing with now. You can take time to read all my posts and comments for more info about my situation. I'm quite interested in your friends condition of pains in the limbs as you described. I had it for months. It's called ischemic contracture of the limbs. The way mine was handled was a constant daily input from occupational therapies. I used to soak my limbs in hot/warm water for approx 30minutes after which was followed by APROM exercises by the therapist. Basically it's about flexing of the limbs by someone after which your friend would be asked to keep flexing it on his/her own. It took my determination to regain my hands. But unfortunately I lost all my toes and soles. However I had feet reconstruction operation and am able to walk now on my feet. I doubt if she was ready to be discharged yet. Her body went through a lot in a short period of time and so will not function normal for months to come. I had memory problems and fatigue as well however they improved with time. I had so much cognitive complications and balance issues as well. I lost all my hearing on both ears but had cochlear implant with which I can hear now though sounds weird. Your friend condition will improve with time but it will take a long time than you think. What she needs is support and attention but she will be fine. I hope I helped with my piece of garbage lol. Keep faith my friend.

Vasco

[aujjaju in reply to vasco]

Actually i was looking for a comment and advise like this...Are you on facebook? I am here fb.com/anujmaheshwari.ksj...Would like to connect with you in person on facebook so that i can get advises from you...

[aujjaju in reply to vasco]

Hi Vasco,

How are you doing? I sent you a private message on healthunlocked, did you get it?

[StrawberryCream]

Hi Anuj. I can hear your loving concern in your message for your friend you are clearly very special to each other and the nasty Meningitis has ripped that apart. Each persons road of recovery is individual and different. The meningitis can damage the brain and body in different ways for each of us. Your friend you say contracted the illness in July 2013 and so this is still very early days on her road of recovery. Recovery takes time and it is expected that it takes years rather than weeks or months. For me over the first 2 years lots of recovery gradually took place but now I know that the difficulties I am left with may improve a little more but I will never be back to how I was. I have had to find new ways to manage myself and my son. I wasn't expected to survive, but amazingly I did and although it is not easy I have continued to parent, as a single adoptive mum, my young son. He gives me much determination to strive on. Your friend has her loving and caring parents and you doing everything you can for her and it is that devotion and encouragement that will help her further along her road of recovery. I have read that people do best if they have good support from those dear to them. You must also take care of yourself and do not get so consumed by anxiety and stress that you make yourself ill too. Try and find ways to allow yourself to take a break from the situation in what ever way you can however small - maybe by listening to music, putting the situation out of your mind for a while at work, reading, meeting with other friends etc. Try to reflect on how desperately ill she was in that coma, unable to do anything and the progress she has already made. To be back home and no longer in hospital is in itself significant improvement. We all have to take a day at a time and not predict the future because none of us know how much each of us will progress. Take care and keep being such a great concerned and loving friend.

[aujjaju in reply to StrawberryCream]

I am doing my bit....I want to see her back to normal again...She means a lot to me...Need your help and advise to keep her recovering well....Thanks for your kind advise...Your presence and encouragement really make me believe that she'll be fine soon one day...Like you were in extreme danger and recovered well she'll also do...Thanks a ton for your kind advise...It's really helpful....I am here on facebook fb.com/anujmaheshwari.ksj and would love to connect with you there, if you don't mind...!

[marlit]

Good evening, i just read your story about your girl friend. May i know how she is today?because my father was also diagnosed with TB meningitis and he was sent out from hospital for 3 months already. Please let me know for how long will we wait him until he can recover. Please please im begging for your advice. Thank you

[Prayerss in reply to marlit]

Hello,

My dad is also on road to recovery from Tb meningitis and Miliary Tb . He is doing good except feels too weak to get up and go to even bathroom. He is in hospital for past 3 months and almost 2 weeks on rehab but still unable to get up on his own. He is 71 and literally came back from worse. Just wanted to know how is your dad doing and did he have any of this issue.

[ruchu19]

i need ur contact no aur mail id to cantact to u as my husband is also suffering from all this