Long term effects to vm

[Broadyem]

Hi I had vm 10 yrs ago I felt like my brain was exploding inside my head and the pain any light caused I can't even describe it. I was diagnosed very quickly and was hospitalised for over a wk I was really ill. Really felt like I was going to die. I now suffer many long term illnesses since having vm. From fatigue, short term memory loss, bells palsy and seizures just to name a few but the main illness is reflex sympathetic dystrophy a neurological disorder which causes unbearable pain scoring 42 out of 50 on the Mc Gill pain scale in the affected area which for me is my whole right side from my face right down to my right foot. This had made me disabled I wear a leg brace use crutches for getting around my home but have to use a wheelchair / mobility scooter for Everything else. 

After having vm I did have follow appointments with my GP but I was never given much information about after effects as far as I knew I should have had a full recovery as vm is just like having a really bad flu. That's what everyone told me. It took quiet a long time before the doctors connected vm to me getting rsd. With my right side being affected they say vm has damaged the left side of my brain. 

Much more research needs to be done and vm needs to be taken more seriously, more information needs to be past onto patients. 

I will have rsd for the rest of my life and I have come to terms with it. I hope my story will help anyone else suffering long term effects from vm.

Thanks 

[Claudeminh]

Hi wow thats a very powerful dose of viral meningitis you had. Its truly ridiculous that anyone would think it was not a serious disease. My god, it can kill people and then if it doesnt it leaves permanent marks. Im still getting over it, or maybe not anymore. I think this is it and I have to come to terms with it being the way it is. Its hard to accept but harder to deny isnt it. Anyway, you are not alone and we are all on this journey through life together post VM. Im still unwelll most of the time in varying degrees and am very sensitive to any changes at all, work, travel, car rides, food, sleep. Anything really. Its just the new normal and we are all trying to just get used to it hey.

[Broadyem in reply to Claudeminh]

Hi 

Hope your having a good day.

Yes vm can be a shocker just more info and research needs doing and help for us that's suffered with vm. I had a really good neurologist that explained everything and explained why I was constantly ill. It really helped. Take care hope you manage to feel better x

[DiverK]

Hi there I've read a few posts on this site was beginning to wonder if people really knew what meningitis felt like ,  I am not sure what country you are all in I'm in Michigan U.S here but ya I had meningitis (viral) 20 years ago when I was 17 , which happened to be a very bad health time in my life , I have had severe migraines my whole life since I was about 7 , now I have never been an extremely healthy person had pneumonia 4 times bronchitis about once a year, I had mono not long before I came down with menengitis and they head pain I felt was like a migraine times a 100 it came on really fast too , I remember walking out of school and I my face was all red and hot and the pain was unbearable, I just left didn't tell anyone got in my car and went home, I don't remember much else except considering taking a knife to the part of my head that was in pain cut it out not logical I know luckily I collapsed fell on floor and passed out from pain my parents found me and they believed I was having a regular migraine and put me in bed with a cold compress or towel and when I got worse they finally took me to the ER now here in the America they take any form of menengitits vey serious and they tried every pain med on the book and could not stop the pain I remember Bing on a Demerol ,Valium drip then thy hit me with other stuff till I passed out, I woke a few days later with them coming at me with a huge needle it was time for a spinal tap yaa, that's how they finally figured out what I had not much was known about meningitis viral or bacterial I was told I had viral which was good cause if I had bac then I would die, then they told me not much could be done keep me on pain med and I either pulled through or not I guess , there seemed to be slim possibility I would die great news to a 17 year old, after 2 weeks they released me and every time i stood up whap like being hit in the head with  last baseball bat I was re-adm and they found when they did spinal tap they left a bubble of air in my spinal fluid, they blood patched I believe this went on at leas for one more round before they got right , now I explain all this cause I have had my migraines intensify to a level I didn't know after that and since for past 20 years granted I have had multiple head injuries I.e. Fighting , car accidents 8 of them and then the grand finale of being robbed by three people who jumped me by hitting the back of my head with a 2/4 and blowing that open blood everywhere then hitting me on head and spine repeadtly this is the Detroit area that happened so no surprise I only survived because I did not pass out and kept fighting I made it to a hospital and collapsed ,vague memories of them cutting my clothes off but that was a game changer for me so it's hard to differentiate between the migraines I'm used to and the severe pain I constantly have wearing my neck and back from injuries this was 4 years ago I have to have spinal injections once a month and I am on heavy orates for pain which I am very careful with, luckily In my country the health care has gone down the toilet hospitals barely help you and docs don't take formularies through Medicare anymore so I get the pleasure of paying 400 a month out of pocket cause I now live on disability , not a free loader here people I used to be an underwater contractor in Cali for few years adc certified , but life has changed I can no longer hod a job I'm not reliable I never know my good days compared with the bad I got on this site cause I was curious if more research had been done since those days and wanted to know if going thru VM may have caused any permanent damage to my mengis or spinal cord and I now believe it's possible after reading others comments, I also have bi-polar disorder and wonder if that had anything to do with it I never had. Diagnosed depression before it but do remember feeling alone and depressed as a child even tho I had many friends so who knows,  but I'm curious wherever some of you are it seems like inadequate treatment migh have been administered I'm sure steroids only for menengitis and treating like a flu wtf VM can kill you albeit rarely it's possible I'm no stranger to death I've stopped breathing twice in life from anaphalaxis shock and other complications there is no need to go into , I live a life in constant pain I'm on a heating pad right now trying to loosen my back up and take minimal meds but it's not going well_, I see a lot of people want to give up feel it's not fair whatever your complaint I've lived most of my life in pain and more than half in severe pain so I have a good idea of the fact I'm stuck like this as long as I'm alive , right now tho I love life, and I love God he is good and always answers your prayers just sometimes the answer is no, there may come a time where I can't bare this condition I'm left in but I believe that will only happen if health care gets worse here and I'm left with no doc to help me then we'll then I would have no choice but look in other states for a compassionate dr kovorchian clone to help but I truly don't ever want to get to that I hope everyone's health improves on here just though I'd throw some food for thought out there 2 or 4 years may not be the end of your struggle after surviving VM but hey things can get worse 👀😎

[sopie]

Believe I understand--- it is my left side and 24 yrs later for me-- I have fallen multiple time and had two fractured patella's one 2very different occasions both the  r and l 

[Broadyem]

Hi all vm has a lot to answer for. I know I will be in constant pain for the rest of my life now I have rsd/crps I have come to terms with this. 

There needs to be lots more research done into vm and the links with other disorders. Good luck with your future health xx