My sister was diagnosed with meningitis today, she just had a baby 3 days ago, her vision is impaired now

[Sumwum1]

My sister was diagnosed with meningitis today after a long labor, then c-section, and she had severe head pain/migrane, then became aggressive and didn't remember her name, who we were, or where she was, she had a high fever. They started her on antibiotics within 24 hours of her symptoms. The fever went down, she now knows her name, birthday, where she is, knows her family and our names, and her appetite is ok, but she still can't answer some questions and is not quite herself. Her vision has become impaired, it is blury and she is seeing spots, etc. We are suppose to get more answers in the morning after an MRI to find out what type of meningitis she contracted/how it happened, it may have been via her epidural. We are uneducated about menigitis and scared for her, and her mental and vision impairment this has caused. Will it go away? Does anyone have any knowledge or advice to share? Thank you for reading this. We are beside ourselves.

[4timerVM]

For her vision, she needs to see a Neuro-Opthomalogist. I didn't know such an MD existed until after I have vision issues after VM. Vision issues can improve. Right now everything is still inflamed, so time may help. Horrible to wait. The mental stuff will improve, but please be patient. Short term memory loss is common. If she says she doesn't remember even weeks or months from now it's TRUE. But the short term memory loss will get better gradually. Meningitis can be caused by a leak of spinal fluid, as in her epidural. That's highly likely considering the timing. Am not an MD. Aggressive behavior tends to be a sign of BM or encephalitis not VM. Fyi. Happy to listen or answer any other questions you may have. Blessings.

[Sumwum1 in reply to 4timerVM]

Thank you so much for your reply and your information...

[shorty52992]

I’m so sorry to hear about your sister. I hope the baby is healthy and doing well. I was actually pregnant with I contracted bacterial meningitis. I was on life support for two days. My high temperature went down - thankfully. I woke up and was very confused. I didn’t have any memory loss. I had two mini strokes, severe sepsis, pneumonia and a blot clot in my brain.

I had double vision while in the hospital. I had a droopy eyelid from the stroke too. I was released after ten days in hospital.

My droopy eyelid got better after a few weeks. My vision was only double in the hospital but it wasn’t all the time. My vision in the right eye wasn’t clear. I had a blindspot.

Now almost 2 years later and seeing ophthalmologists I had nerve damage. So my eye has cleared up a little I still have a blind spot in my right eye.

It was also difficult recovering from my illiness being pregnant. It just took time. After delivering my son for a planned c-section I hemorrhaged I believe due to the blood clot medication I was on. And my son was healthy as could be. I went off blood clot injections December 2017. I had an open wound from hemorrhaging which took 6 months to heal. So now other than having an almost 1.5 year old and 5 year old who keep me exhausted I’m feeling blessed to be here. And having some eye trouble is not bad for the amount of issues I experienced. Although I wish it would get better bc it would help with driving but I’m here another day with my kids.

I’m sending many prayers your way. I hope your sister recovers but it just takes time. Her energy will just be nonexistent. So hopefully she has a good support system to help. I had family helping me for a good two months and making meals for us.

If you have any questions or if your sister wants to reach out I’m here to help.

Best,

Ashley

[Sumwum1 in reply to shorty52992]

Ashely, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story, I truly appreciate it. It helps to know what this disease can and cant do both when you are going through it and in the long term -- I think you summed it up so well when you said at least you are here another day with your kids. I will keep you in my thoughts! I will read your story to my sister. thank you again.

[shorty52992 in reply to Sumwum1]

You’re welcome. Best of luck to your sister and family. I’m hoping she has a speedy recovery.

[Hidden]

The worst has passed. But the recovery process is long and slow. 4timerVM gave the best two pieces of advice I'd give any family member: (1) Be patient. (2) Believe her.

I'd also add, be aware of language. " She had meningitis" makes it sound like a past-tense discrete event, when it is anything but that. "She is recovering from meningitis" is, I think, a better way to conceptualize it.

[IRHONDA in reply to Hidden]

exactly recovering <3

[Sumwum1 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you so much!

[jodie89]

I had vm when my son was 3months old. My eye went the same from the pressure in my head. In was in hospital over a month and took a lot to get better. My sight did get better slowly and is now fine. Very scary time with a new born and not being able to be with them.

[Sumwum1 in reply to jodie89]

Thank you so much for your information!

[Sumwum1]

I wanted to thank everyone who replied to my post. The support and information I received on here were so helpful and comforted me and my family. I also wanted to provide an update in case it could be helpful to someone in the future. My sister was almost immediately put on 5 different antibiotics once the doctors figured this was meningitis. Because she was put on antibiotics so early, the doctors never could accurately determine the type and cause of the meningitis, however, it is believed she got bacterial meningitis during the time she had her epidural in while in labor. She went through about a 24 hour period of not knowing who anyone was, not remembering she had a baby, not knowing her own name or birthday, making no sense, being aggressive and acting like a crazy person. She finally came around and got her memory back and her wits about her during the 2nd and 3rd day and also slowly her vision begin to repair. It has now been almost 3 weeks and she is still having some pain in her eyes but it is improving every day. All of her mental issues are gone. She has suffered no other impairments. She was on a strong course of intravenous antibiotics for about 12 days. There was a program we were able to do that allowed her to leave the hospital so she could be with her newborn baby and we were able to give her the antibiotics intravenously from home; that was so great. We were so scared with this whole situation but thank god for catching it early with the antibiotics, she was already in the hospital when it occurred, so we were lucky. if anyone reading this has any questions in the future, please feel free to reach out to me, I would be happy to help anyone who is unfortunate enough to go through this with a family member or someone close to them in the future with any information I have based on our experience. I am not a doctor, I am just the sister of someone who contracted meningitis. Thank you.