Cruisinthru
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- May 22, 2007
- Messages
- 331
My 37 yr old son just survived bacterial meningitus and I thought I would post about his (and my) ordeal in the hopes that it educate anyone who doesn't know the symptoms. I did know the symptoms and my quick response to them definitely helped him get thru it.
On Monday, Sept. 1, my son's girlfriend called me and said he was complaining of a stiff neck. I had seen him the night before and he was fine so I didn't think much of it. He is a healthy and very active young man. At 7 PM that night girlfriend calls back and says he has a splitting headache. I then remembered hearing about meningitus years ago when someone I knew lost her son with it and alarm bells went off in my head. I said get him to the emergency room.
At the hospital they did a CAT and a spinal tap (not what they call it these days but heck if I can remember....) and said it was meningitus. They just didn't know what kind, viral or bacterial. The nice doctor explained that bacterial is pretty rare and much more deadly, so it's probably viral. Several hours later they came back to say it was bacterial but they didn't know what kind of bacteria was causing it.
They proceeded to start the admittance procedures into the hospital. I stayed with my son during this time and within a few hours saw his condition quickly deteriate. He had fever and chills, was very sensitive to light, and his head was hurting so much he cried. Before he could get admitted he was confused and didn't know where he was.
They quickly got him to ICU and by 2:30 on the morning of Sept. 2 he was on a ventilator and surrounded by machines. He was struggling and fighting with the doctors and nurses and was finally restrained. They kept him knocked out for the next four days while they fed him massive amounts of antibiotics.
It was determined that the bacteria was staph and they were finally able to give him the specific antibiotic for that and he started improving very quickly. He came out of ICU after 6 days. He came home from the hospital yesterday, Sept. 8th.
The meningitus has left him with some motor skill problems and mental confusion. He has a weakness on his left side that has caused him to have problems using his left hand and moving his left leg. He is improving daily and the doctor tells me that he should make a complete recovery. His recovery may takes many weeks.
The kicker to this is that it all started with a scratch on his arm. My son does HVAC work and crawls into some pretty dirty attics, etc. The scratch got infected and he went to the doctor and got antibiotics. Unfortunately, they made him sick at his stomack and he got busy and he just stopped taking them. His arm was better, so he didn't need them! The staph infection came raging back and quickly progressed into bacterial meningitus.
Lessons learned are always follow the doctors orders about finishing all your antibiotic treatment, treat all scratches and ouchees seriously, and know the signs of meningitus. If you have a stiff neck, headaches, sensitivity to light, mental confusion, and problems with your ears, get to the emergency room ASAP. This stuff is deadly and time is important. They say if we had delayed a few more hours it may have been to late.
My son came home from the hospital yesterday. I am administering antibiotics thru a pic line for the next two weeks. They make him sick at his stomack, but he isn't going to quite taking them.
On Monday, Sept. 1, my son's girlfriend called me and said he was complaining of a stiff neck. I had seen him the night before and he was fine so I didn't think much of it. He is a healthy and very active young man. At 7 PM that night girlfriend calls back and says he has a splitting headache. I then remembered hearing about meningitus years ago when someone I knew lost her son with it and alarm bells went off in my head. I said get him to the emergency room.
At the hospital they did a CAT and a spinal tap (not what they call it these days but heck if I can remember....) and said it was meningitus. They just didn't know what kind, viral or bacterial. The nice doctor explained that bacterial is pretty rare and much more deadly, so it's probably viral. Several hours later they came back to say it was bacterial but they didn't know what kind of bacteria was causing it.
They proceeded to start the admittance procedures into the hospital. I stayed with my son during this time and within a few hours saw his condition quickly deteriate. He had fever and chills, was very sensitive to light, and his head was hurting so much he cried. Before he could get admitted he was confused and didn't know where he was.
They quickly got him to ICU and by 2:30 on the morning of Sept. 2 he was on a ventilator and surrounded by machines. He was struggling and fighting with the doctors and nurses and was finally restrained. They kept him knocked out for the next four days while they fed him massive amounts of antibiotics.
It was determined that the bacteria was staph and they were finally able to give him the specific antibiotic for that and he started improving very quickly. He came out of ICU after 6 days. He came home from the hospital yesterday, Sept. 8th.
The meningitus has left him with some motor skill problems and mental confusion. He has a weakness on his left side that has caused him to have problems using his left hand and moving his left leg. He is improving daily and the doctor tells me that he should make a complete recovery. His recovery may takes many weeks.
The kicker to this is that it all started with a scratch on his arm. My son does HVAC work and crawls into some pretty dirty attics, etc. The scratch got infected and he went to the doctor and got antibiotics. Unfortunately, they made him sick at his stomack and he got busy and he just stopped taking them. His arm was better, so he didn't need them! The staph infection came raging back and quickly progressed into bacterial meningitus.
Lessons learned are always follow the doctors orders about finishing all your antibiotic treatment, treat all scratches and ouchees seriously, and know the signs of meningitus. If you have a stiff neck, headaches, sensitivity to light, mental confusion, and problems with your ears, get to the emergency room ASAP. This stuff is deadly and time is important. They say if we had delayed a few more hours it may have been to late.
My son came home from the hospital yesterday. I am administering antibiotics thru a pic line for the next two weeks. They make him sick at his stomack, but he isn't going to quite taking them.
Nobody else got it, though. Nobody else in the family got it, either.
