Is the supplements I can be taking to help the the recovery?

[Jayson66]

Recovering from viral meningitis, diagnosed Aug 21/12. Was feeling good a week ago, so decided to return to work. Took a short flight to the worksite yesterday. Today a feel horrible, weak, headache is back, sore and just drained. Is this a result from the flight or am I being a little to optimistic in the time it takes to recover?

Still have hearing and balance issues, any idea how long it takes for these issues to improve? I just cant afford to take more and more time of work to sit and do nothing.

Is the supplements I can be taking to help the the recovery?

Thank you all,

Jayson

[Tiga]

Hon with you there, went back to work, 10 days after coming out of the hospital. you will find you will need to drink more water to help, VIT C, B complex will help with tiredness, and you must eat more greens (OMG sound like my mom) but it is true, your poor body has gone threw so much and will need help with extra vits and food.

Your headache, will be that your poor brain is doing twice the work, think of your self as a computer that has been re booted, some files may be lost other files just missed placed, so you are mind and brain is working twice as hard in the back ground.

try ice sticks (£1 shop) and rub on your forehead to help, take hot baths to relax.

also with the cold weather coming try zinc, all these you can get from Holland Barrett, try and wait for offers and get there reward card as well.

as the saying goes BABY steps, eat more often than you would, make sure you take more water threw the day.

I know it is very hard for you, but just take your time, you will get better, it took me about 3 months to start to feel me again, but hon. you will get there

[vasco]

Dear jayson,

So sorry you had viral meningitis recently. Though you were lucky to have recovered fully physically, but I think your body is not yet ready. The psychological and emotional parts of the body affected too. I'd think you underestimated what you went through. I would suggest you take more time off work and give your body a rest. Though your mind set might be strong enough to launch back to work, I don't think the body is ready yet. I know you might be bored staying at home doing nothing but think of ways to get yourself occupied as you rest.

Myself being a guy that used to work 14-16hrs every day of the week but now forced to stay at home ever since I contracted meningitis 12months ago. Though I suffered too many physical disabilities, but the worst part is psychological and emotional bits. People and even you might be thinking you are well now but these unseen after effects would continue to sabotage your daily effort to do things you used to do. So I keep suggesting more rest.

Myself, having spent so many months resting and nursing my wounds realise how boring it is to be lying around. But I have devised a way of getting around boredom. I have been writing and putting together my romance with meningitis for the past 12months. It has been helping me to express my frustrations, keeping me engaged and would serve as part of my biography in time. I blog often on meningitis trust website and healthunlocked as well. I also read people's experiences and it's been helpful. You might even consider some counselling sessions. It might sound boring but your brain and body were really affected more than you would probably think. I am not a pessimist though, you might be able to go back to work full time and still handle the after effects. But I am talking from my own experience.

Sorry about your situation once more. You will be fine

[Vespalover]

I had VM end of April and still get headaches if I do too much. Jayson, you have to think of it like this: if you broke your leg you would put a cast on it and imobalise it untill it had fully healed. As it is your brain that has been injured you cannot put a cast on it ot 'imobalise' it and that is where everyone trips up. The brain feels better so you think it is repaired, you do stuff and the headaches and tiredness come back.

This is what helped me to rest my brain. Try not to:

1. What too much TV. Especially action movies that require a lot of visual tracking and mental processing.

2. Try only to do essential stuff on coputer(e mail) but no more and especially no scrolling your screen.

3. Aviod deep emotional conversations or situations. They create stress and also cause the brain to have to process on many levels.

4. Do not drink alchol as ot robs the brain of fluid and dehydration is bad news for a menigitus sufferer.

DO:

Delegate, meditate, nap and prioritise.

Good luck.

Ana

[Jonad724]

Just to add my ha'peth to this and echo what others have said. I am a 10 year + survivor of a near fatal attack of VM and it took me around 12 months to feel anything like close to how I did before but the key thing is to rest. If you try and push through it you'll just go backwards, you have to respect what your body has been through and as my neurologist said 'brains are funny old things' so unfortunately patience is the key. Try to think of 'normal' as how you are now rather than how you used to be and learn to work around what it has done to you and you'll be fine. Ana has some really good tips and it took me a fair amount of time to reach these conclusions so please do heed them as they are so right.

What your brain has been through is on any level a trauma and you can't predict how it's going to cope in the future and neither can the medical profession incidentally. It wasn't until I had VM that I realised how little the medical profession actually knows about the brain and VM in general.

Hang in there, rest and listen to your body and you'll be fine. Like Vasco I write a regular blog here about my experiences with VM and coming back to triathlon after a five year break to let the symptoms settle down, 3 stone overweight and barely able to walk a mile let alone run it. This year I completed my first half ironman so I hope I'm living proof that with time, patience and listening to my body that anything is possible. Good luck and keep us posted!

[hannah88]

i have had re-occuring meningitis and i take floredex tonic to help my recovery there are various forms i take extra iron, you can take it in liquid or tablets, i personally prefer tablets as liquid tastes very berry like and i am not keen on taste of berries, its sold in Holland and barrets and i believe it is the best, i get extra iron as drops in iron can make you feel very tired, i also strongly am a fan of forehead rub its a stick which you rub on your head which is available from boots, superdrug and many chemist it is herbal so does not have the side effects tablets do and also works immediately.

hope you recover soon