It left her weak, confused and dazed for a long time and with severe health anxiety that something like it could happen again, as she tells us here.
“I hadn’t been feeling all that well, I was just not myself for days, but carried on as you do.
“Then one morning I awoke with pins and needles all over my body. I was living with my boyfriend at the time. I managed to get down the stairs and still felt off, but the pins and needles turned quickly into aches and pain.
“I tried to explain to my boyfriend at the time how I was feeling, but I couldn’t get the words out. I couldn’t string a sentence together at all. It was just slur and mumble.
Rushed to A&E
“He took me home to my mum and at my mum’s my head started to hurt a lot. The pain made me sick, so she called the doctor, who said they could only take emergency appointments at that time. So, my mum rushed me into A&E.
“I couldn’t walk to the car, my legs wouldn’t work, so my mum and boyfriend had to carry me together. All I could do was slur and mumble in frustration that I couldn’t get my words out how I wanted to.
“Once I arrived at the hospital, screaming, I was rushed straight through and put to sleep. I awoke in a hospital bed with a sore back where I had had my lumbar puncture.
Lucky to still be here
“I was then diagnosed with viral meningitis and encephalitis and told I was very lucky to still be here.
“I was confused and spent a long time in hospital on acyclovir but the whole experience left me weak and confused and dazed for a very long time.
“I actually don’t think I took in certain life events that happened afterwards for some good time, because things I know I was there for are sometimes like new information.
“I went through stages of lost time at the start where I would sit and the time would disappear like I’d lose an hour.
“My experience has left me with severe health anxiety that something like that could happen again.”
