Recovering from hib bacterial meningitis and feel like my life has been turned upside down.

[Vickybell]

I am 29 years old, married and have a 15 month old baby girl. One day at the end of June this year I started to feel extremely dizzy, with a stiff neck and felt very weak. I made an emergency doctors appointment and was told I had an inner ear infection. That night, I woke up with a severe headache, which persisted even after taking painkillers. The next day I called the doctor who prescribed stronger painkillers, however these did not work and I started being sick and could not move from my bed. Thankfully my mum called nhs direct who sent an ambulance to my home.

As soon as I was admitted to hospital, the doctors started me on a course of anti-biotics and within a couple of hours I was given a lumbar puncture (not a pleasant experience!). The results came back that I had bacterial meningitis, however, the microbiologists were struggling to find out what type of meningitis I had.

Due to this, my recovery was very slow and I went downhill more than once as my body was not accepting the treatment given. I was given an MRI scan, CT scan, heart ultrascan, a second lumbar puncture, and so many blood tests that I now feel like a walking pin cushion!

Thankfully, I was lucky enough to recover, and after 3 weeks in hospital, I was finally allowed come and got to see my daughter who I missed more than I could say. A couple of weeks later, I then found out that my meningitis was caused by the hib baterial and that only 30 people a year suffer with this!

Now that I am home and 'well', life is carrying on as normal but I seem to be at a standstill, almost like I'm in a state of shock. I keep going over what has happened, how suddenly I became ill, wondering where on earth I caught this, and then pondering on what could of happened to me if I hadn't received such great care.

There have been many after affects of this illness for me....headaches, pressure in my ears and head on standing, severe anxiety, fatigue and muscle weakness. I am self employed, so not only did I lose earnings, but I am unable to return to working yet and have also lost clients. So financially, things have been very hard.

The saddest part of all of this is the impact that this illness has had on the relationship with my husband. He is a recovering alcoholic and after a week of me being in hospital he unfortunately turned to alcohol for solace. This led to me not seeing him for the next two weeks of being in hospital, and not having his support and comfort. My mum, who had been spending a lot of time with me in hospital now was needed to look after my baby girl which left me alone most of the time, struggling to feed and water myself. Me and my husband are now living apart and I am left to care for our daughter on my own whilst I try to recover.

Life after meningitis is very different to the life I left behind when I caught this, and I'm not really sure how to more forward just yet. What I do know though, is that I have been very lucky and that I am very grateful to be here today.