Men B - my daughter's story

[MinkyD]

Hello, I am new here and wanted to share my daughter's story.

My daughter had Men B last November. She is 23 and thought it was just a sickness bug or flu at first. It started with her shoulders aching, then she was sick several times. Her temperature rose and she was achy all over. When her temperature was not dropping (even with paracetamol and ibuprofen), her boyfriend phoned me as he was concerned. I told them to phone Dr's, who after a phone consultation, did see her. He initially thought it was a virus, but her boyfriend had noticed a rash on her chin so pointed it out. The GP then gave her an antibiotic injection and called an ambulance.

Her boyfriend called us and we rushed to the Dr's to wait with her. Strangely, her temperature had gone back down and she was actually feeling slightly better. The GP said it was just a precaution, but when I saw the rash I was really worried.

The ambulance took over an hour to get to her, but we were relieved to get to the hospital where they started to treat her. She was very dehydrated and her kidneys were struggling. They gave her intravenous antibiotics, fluids and other things and a catheter. She went down hill really quickly.

She spent 6 days in Intensive care and 5 more on the respiratory ward. She was very poorly, but so lucky to pull through.

She is now 11 weeks in to her recovery. She is still very weak, has more weakness down her left side so finds it hard to walk any distance. She did have partial vision loss in both eyes, but now only in her left eye. She gets painful neck and spine and headaches. Her balance is bad and she gets dizzy, and she is sensitive to bright light now.

Hopefully she will make a full recovery, but I think it will take a long time. She's got a follow up appointment with the consultant in February, so hopefully he can answer some of our questions.

[kirsty40]

Hi minky d. Sorry to hear about your daughter. I had a similar experience flu like symptoms, hospital for 3 weeks and intravenous drip for 2 months after leaving hospital. It took me a while to get my energy levels back and I still can't run or do anything too strenuous ( it has been 15 months since my nightmare of an experience. The only side affects I experience is headaches, fatigue, hearing loss and depression some times due to not being able to do the things I could once do. I guess in saying this the healing process will take time. In her own time she will slowly gain energy😊You just need to remain positive as I am sure deep down she wants to get things back to normal. I started working full time again in march 2016 in which took me a while to adjust but now I just enjoy life as anyone would being through this illness.

I hope your daughter gets better soon. I am happy to keep in contact if that helps? I am based in nz.

[MinkyD in reply to kirsty40]

Thank you,

It's so good to read other people's experiences and to know we're not alone.

[sorba]

So glad your daughter was treated in time, I know from personal experience the symptoms are so like flu. Fortunately I made a good recovery but it does take time, Sorba

[Cloudlover]

Yes. So happy she went to the hospital. They told me if I hadn't gone that day I'd be dead the next. That's how bad BM is. A young girl of 19 here going to university was sick she thought with sinus flu. Went to dr and even with all the signs like high fever neck head pain he sent her home that day with antibiotics. She got up the next day and fell over dead. I see now that GPs need an intelligible knowledge of meningitis in all aspects even if it saves one life in his lifetime! Mine was always concerned if I had a headache and made sure my neck etc werent stiff and no spine pain. It pays to be cautious. Very thankful she is alive. Celebrate her life every day! Cloudlover

[MinkyD in reply to Cloudlover]

We are very thankful, we have had two previous family members who did not survive (my grandmother who was mid 50's and a nephew who was 2), so know that she was very lucky. It happens so quickly and so many people are still unaware of symptoms.

I'm telling everyone I meet about it, just to get it more known.