Today marks the one year anniversary of me being discharged from hospital, after being in a coma with a rare strain of bacterial meningitis. It struck hours after I'd had my baby by caesarean section.
I was only in hospital for two weeks, and am extremely lucky not to have any obvious side-effects. The medical team were amazing, and acted very quickly when my symptoms started showing.
Don't know why I'm posting really, just wanted to spread the word that meningitis isn't always devastating and celebrate me beating it!
I have signposted my GP to this site, as he'd never heard of it, and he will now let patients know how they can get fantastic support too.
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YWurri
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It is uplifting to have a positive post about the outcome of BM as it becomes easy to think it is never that way as a lot of the people who post on here do so because they are suffering long term effects. Am so sorry to hear that at a time when you should have been rejoicing in the delight of your new born baby that you firstly had to have a Caesarian and then subsequently contracted BM. Am pleased also that it was picked up very quickly and treated as that is what often makes such a difference to the outcome of the BM. Sadly it is often not recognised by the medical profession until more extreme symptoms such as fits or coma have occured. I can understand you posting today with it being the 1st years anniversary because it is a very significant milestone and one lots of us want to acknowledge for good reasons like you (that you survived and recovered well) or for others of us because it makes a sudden point where our lives were turned upside down and never to be quite the same again. Those 2 weeks that you hadn't expected to be so ill in hospital but home caring and loving your new baby must have been horrendously difficult for both you and your family. But you recovered and quite quickly were home with your little one. Well done you you are clearly a fighter when it comes to serious illness. No doubt you are reflecting on it all but also will have recently been celebrating your cherished baby's first birthday. Enjoy both your celebrations!
Well done for highlighting the HealthUnlocked site to your GP hopefully they will make other patients aware.
Thank you, I hope my post didn't come across as smug or dismissive to those who are struggling. I'm not saying meningitis isn't devastating in most cases, but I think this site can be a little like when people leave online product reviews; they tend only to write when there's a problem.
The last couple of weeks have certainly been a reflective time for me. I will never be able to get those precious first weeks with my baby back, but I can focus on the rest of our lives.
Please don't worry that your post came across as smug or dismissive because it didn't. It is good to have a bit of a balance with hearing positive outcomes. From time to time people do come on here with good outcome stories but unfortunately it is mostly only the people that have been left with long term effects that stay on here and post more often because they are the ones who are helped by the ongoing support, understanding, info, ideas, etc. Your post was helpful too because you were making us aware of a helpful book.
Yes it must be very difficult knowing you missed out on fully enjoying those first couple of weeks of your babies life but you are right in now focusing the rest of your lives to come and in reality a few weeks is fairly insignificant.
Best wishes and do continue to post us your positive outcome updates because there are I think a lot of 'followers' on here that never post but may be just recovering from Meningitis and your posts encourage them that the outcome isn't always the long term effects which they read so much of on here.
Good news to hear your so well and were treated so quickly . It's now two weeks since my grandson was taken in to hospital with bacterial meningitis and seems to have made a full recovery ... He still needs afew tests but thanks to Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester Uk he is back to his lively self . I can't believe how only 14 days ago he was in high dependency with drips , a heart beat of 180 etc and through the excellent efficiency and care of the staff I have my grandson back . Yes I think positive and supportive posts are good . Glad things worked out for you x
Hi Anita,When can a doctor tell if the infant didn't get any side effects of the disease?? At which month can a doc tell if baby made complete recovery without side effects or baby made recovery but with few side effects?? At 4 months wellness check or at the 6 months wellness check(for babies). Thank you
So sorry this is so late but I remember seeing this post come round before when I made a mental note to reply to it (and then forgot! my bad), and my own progress back was slipping a touch.
SO, congratulations from me too, and if anything else positive comes up that makes you reflect back to the forum, please do share. As StrawberryCream says above, it's great to hear good news and to set the balance right. Good news fuels experience over hope and is very refreshing.
And I hope your time with your not so young baby is wonderful now too, as I guess it was his/her birthday at that time of year too. Now that is an even better thing to congratulate each and every year :-), and hopefully means you'll always remember how luck and life panned out joyously for you both in the end.
Enjoy, big hugs and hope the newer memories can repay to some extent those you lost, and what an incentive to give it another go! X
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