My husband of 42 years came down with VM eight years ago. When we presented at the hospital, he told the admitting nurse it was 1972, and that we were not married. He didn't know me, or our children. He was put on heavy duty meds and in a weeks time, began to come back to us. His brain scan shows lots of dead spots, and he can't recall anything sometimes. He can't work , as his profession was law. We had to ask him not to drive anymore after he wrecked two cars. ( everyone was o.k ) Every so often the VM seems to creep back, and he will act " LOOPY " as if he were really drunk. ( He hasn't had an alcoholic beverage in years) This lasts a couple or three days, and it goes away. His MD's try to find out what is causing this, with no answers. They always do the lumbar puncture, shake their heads and say, " we see there was VM, and his brain scan shows damage, but we have no idea what caused this 'episode' ". When he was very young, he suffered from cold sores. Once when he caught a cold, it set off an 'episode'; we were in Alaska on a tour, and a nurse on the tour with us said, " It looks like his VM is back. While he made a recovery enough to get us home, he needed to be put in the hospital a few days later. When I suggested to the MD's attending that the VM may have made a re appearance, my idea was summarily dismissed.
My physicians permit came off the back of a cereal box, but I did read Dr. Spock pediatrics book three times.
Any thoughts are welcome. Thank you