Freestyler
Member
Wellll I'm at home now, discharged from hospital at last (it's Friday 3.15 PM here in NZ). Still feeling pretty weak and lightheaded and I should probably be sleeping but hey. Tell me your story, you say! Ok then.
On Sunday I woke up with a really sore left knee joint, and I knew I hadn't slept on it funny or hurt it by walking strange or anything, coz it wasn't that kinda pain. Anyhoo I didn't think anything of it. I went out and about, got my hair cut, bought some stuff etc., then came home and washed my car (this is about 3pm). Straight after washing it, I started feeling freeeezing and my knee really started hurting. I then got uncontrollable shivers and was just lying there teeth chattering and all (it was a perfectly sunny, warm day). So I quickly ran a hot bath and lay in that for about 30 minutes, trying to call out to my dad who was outside doing stuff. Eventually I managed to get out of the bath, and that's when I started vomiting really heavily, it hurt my stomach so much and my whole insides were cramping up every time I vomited. So I just went and lay in bed and tried to sleep, which kinda worked. My dad came in and I told him that I felt like crap etc., he said it was probably just a 12-hour bug or something and I thought it was too. So I was sleeping on and off, all my joints started aching (acheing?) and I kept having to stumble to the bathroom to vomit.
Anyhoo, I didn't sleep much at all during the night coz I was so uncomfortable and hot-then-cold etc., and it seemed like the night went on for days and days. I woke up at about 7.30 Monday morning and the first thing I noticed (apart from feeling even worse than Sunday) was this circley purple rash on my lower arm, just by my right hand. I immediately freaked out because I knew then what it was - meningitis. It's a huge epidemic in our country for some reason, and you hear stories all the time of people losing legs and arms or going into comas or going to their GP and being told to go home and rest up and end up dying. Even this British scientist lady who was over here researching it ended up getting it about 2 weeks ago; she has since had one leg amputated, one arm amputated and all the fingers on her other hand amputated. So it's one scary son of a bitch of a disease.
So I scream out to my parents 'I have meningitis! Hurry!' and my stepmum comes stumbling in, half asleep, and is like 'I'm sure you don't' (they always think I'm making shit up when I'm sick). Anyhoo I show her the rashes (there was now another one on my left arm) and tell her that rashes were the first thing they told us to look out for at school, as a symptom of meningitis. The other symptoms I had were the stiff joints and not being able to touch my chin to my chest (the chest thing is because there's fluid building up in the back of your neck or something so you can't move it), so I was pretty sure I had meningitis. Anyhoo so they call my GP and make an urgent booking, so I had to go have a shower. At this stage I could barely control my arms and legs (I now know why) so I just sat down in the shower for ages and then finally grabbed a towel and dried off. I then stumbled back to bed and had to get my stepmum to dress me, that's how weak I was. Then finally after taking about 10 minutes to get downstairs (sitting on my ass, one step at a time) I get walked to the car and off to the GP. My GP checked over my body, asked me all the questions etc. and said that yes it's possible I have the early signs of meningitis. So they give me a penicillin shot whilst they write up my papers to take me to the emergency ward at hospital, at this stage I'm thinking 'shit, this must be bad'.
We got to hospital and they quickly checked me at the front desk, by this stage the rash was spreading so fast and was all over my arms and hands (it's about 8.45am Monday at this stage). They sit me in a wheelchair and take me to an emergency ward and then it gets really freaky. They start trying to find a pulse and couldn't really find one, so they were all getting anxious. About 2 minutes later I'm surrounded by 7 or so doctors and nurses, all shoving needles and IV lines in both my arms, putting in a cathoter (didn't actually hurt that much, considering the pipe goes *all* the way down your penis into your bladder) and hooking me up to all sorts of machines. They all start talking to each other really fast about my blood pressure, which at this stage was extremely low and really dangerous. So they take my parents outta the room, they're both kinda in shock at this stage because they doubted by self-diagnosis of meningitis but now they realised how fucked I was.
They told me what was happening, that it definitely seemed I had some form of meningitis and it had begun putting holes into all my blood cells. When that started happening (overnight I guess), my heart thought 'oh shit, I don't wanna spread this disease around the body, I better stop pumping' and slowed right right down, hence me having extremely little blood in my limbs and therefore being unable to move. My feet were a disgusting white/purple colour and I was scared I was gonna lose them. So they gave me all this liquid through both arms (IV lines or whatever) at once, to try and increase my blood pressure and get my heart going faster. I guess it wasn't really working that well because they quickly moved me to the resuscitation ward and then did all sorts of shit. At this stage my parents came back into the room and my stepmum had tears streaming down her face, I wasn't that scared until then but I thought 'oh shit they told her something' and freaked out a little. I managed to avoid a lumbar puncture (thank god) because my blood pressure was too low to handle it or something and they already were pretty sure I had meningitis so didn't need to test it that way.
So eventually all the antibiotics and the drugs all kicked in and I stabilised a little, so they moved me to intensive care where they watched me like a hawk and put the hugest IV-kinda line into an artery in my neck, and one just by my wrist (so I have four of the bastards plugged into me now). My stepmum eventually came back with my dad, and my stepmum told me that I came *this* close to dying. The head doctor had taken my parents aside and said to them, if you have any family that can get here right now, you have to get them here, because it's not looking good. That's why my stepmum was freaking out so bad and kept saying 'I've never told you this before but I love you'.
Later that night I got moved to a regular-ish room, still hooked up to everything and oxygen masks and all, but it was a sign that I was stabilising. Then over the past few days they've given me more antibiotics, supplements etc. and I was finally discharged a few hours ago so I'm now home. I'm so thankful that there were no side effects, one of the doctors was obsessed with my feet and kept checking them every 10 minutes because they were frozen and she thought I might lose them. I think I've lost quite a bit of hearing in my right ear, but hey if that's the worst to come of it then thank god.
My final diagnosis was meningitis, caused by meningicoccal type A (something along those lines, I know it was type A). The scary thing is that the vaccine they introduced a few months ago here since so many kids were dying from it, only protects you from type B, so even if I had been vaccinated I still would've been screwed.
WOW just realised how long that story is, must be kinda boring. Sorry if you read it all and found it boring
I'm just so glad to be hooooome and not have lost any limbs.
On Sunday I woke up with a really sore left knee joint, and I knew I hadn't slept on it funny or hurt it by walking strange or anything, coz it wasn't that kinda pain. Anyhoo I didn't think anything of it. I went out and about, got my hair cut, bought some stuff etc., then came home and washed my car (this is about 3pm). Straight after washing it, I started feeling freeeezing and my knee really started hurting. I then got uncontrollable shivers and was just lying there teeth chattering and all (it was a perfectly sunny, warm day). So I quickly ran a hot bath and lay in that for about 30 minutes, trying to call out to my dad who was outside doing stuff. Eventually I managed to get out of the bath, and that's when I started vomiting really heavily, it hurt my stomach so much and my whole insides were cramping up every time I vomited. So I just went and lay in bed and tried to sleep, which kinda worked. My dad came in and I told him that I felt like crap etc., he said it was probably just a 12-hour bug or something and I thought it was too. So I was sleeping on and off, all my joints started aching (acheing?) and I kept having to stumble to the bathroom to vomit.
Anyhoo, I didn't sleep much at all during the night coz I was so uncomfortable and hot-then-cold etc., and it seemed like the night went on for days and days. I woke up at about 7.30 Monday morning and the first thing I noticed (apart from feeling even worse than Sunday) was this circley purple rash on my lower arm, just by my right hand. I immediately freaked out because I knew then what it was - meningitis. It's a huge epidemic in our country for some reason, and you hear stories all the time of people losing legs and arms or going into comas or going to their GP and being told to go home and rest up and end up dying. Even this British scientist lady who was over here researching it ended up getting it about 2 weeks ago; she has since had one leg amputated, one arm amputated and all the fingers on her other hand amputated. So it's one scary son of a bitch of a disease.
So I scream out to my parents 'I have meningitis! Hurry!' and my stepmum comes stumbling in, half asleep, and is like 'I'm sure you don't' (they always think I'm making shit up when I'm sick). Anyhoo I show her the rashes (there was now another one on my left arm) and tell her that rashes were the first thing they told us to look out for at school, as a symptom of meningitis. The other symptoms I had were the stiff joints and not being able to touch my chin to my chest (the chest thing is because there's fluid building up in the back of your neck or something so you can't move it), so I was pretty sure I had meningitis. Anyhoo so they call my GP and make an urgent booking, so I had to go have a shower. At this stage I could barely control my arms and legs (I now know why) so I just sat down in the shower for ages and then finally grabbed a towel and dried off. I then stumbled back to bed and had to get my stepmum to dress me, that's how weak I was. Then finally after taking about 10 minutes to get downstairs (sitting on my ass, one step at a time) I get walked to the car and off to the GP. My GP checked over my body, asked me all the questions etc. and said that yes it's possible I have the early signs of meningitis. So they give me a penicillin shot whilst they write up my papers to take me to the emergency ward at hospital, at this stage I'm thinking 'shit, this must be bad'.
We got to hospital and they quickly checked me at the front desk, by this stage the rash was spreading so fast and was all over my arms and hands (it's about 8.45am Monday at this stage). They sit me in a wheelchair and take me to an emergency ward and then it gets really freaky. They start trying to find a pulse and couldn't really find one, so they were all getting anxious. About 2 minutes later I'm surrounded by 7 or so doctors and nurses, all shoving needles and IV lines in both my arms, putting in a cathoter (didn't actually hurt that much, considering the pipe goes *all* the way down your penis into your bladder) and hooking me up to all sorts of machines. They all start talking to each other really fast about my blood pressure, which at this stage was extremely low and really dangerous. So they take my parents outta the room, they're both kinda in shock at this stage because they doubted by self-diagnosis of meningitis but now they realised how fucked I was.
They told me what was happening, that it definitely seemed I had some form of meningitis and it had begun putting holes into all my blood cells. When that started happening (overnight I guess), my heart thought 'oh shit, I don't wanna spread this disease around the body, I better stop pumping' and slowed right right down, hence me having extremely little blood in my limbs and therefore being unable to move. My feet were a disgusting white/purple colour and I was scared I was gonna lose them. So they gave me all this liquid through both arms (IV lines or whatever) at once, to try and increase my blood pressure and get my heart going faster. I guess it wasn't really working that well because they quickly moved me to the resuscitation ward and then did all sorts of shit. At this stage my parents came back into the room and my stepmum had tears streaming down her face, I wasn't that scared until then but I thought 'oh shit they told her something' and freaked out a little. I managed to avoid a lumbar puncture (thank god) because my blood pressure was too low to handle it or something and they already were pretty sure I had meningitis so didn't need to test it that way.
So eventually all the antibiotics and the drugs all kicked in and I stabilised a little, so they moved me to intensive care where they watched me like a hawk and put the hugest IV-kinda line into an artery in my neck, and one just by my wrist (so I have four of the bastards plugged into me now). My stepmum eventually came back with my dad, and my stepmum told me that I came *this* close to dying. The head doctor had taken my parents aside and said to them, if you have any family that can get here right now, you have to get them here, because it's not looking good. That's why my stepmum was freaking out so bad and kept saying 'I've never told you this before but I love you'.
Later that night I got moved to a regular-ish room, still hooked up to everything and oxygen masks and all, but it was a sign that I was stabilising. Then over the past few days they've given me more antibiotics, supplements etc. and I was finally discharged a few hours ago so I'm now home. I'm so thankful that there were no side effects, one of the doctors was obsessed with my feet and kept checking them every 10 minutes because they were frozen and she thought I might lose them. I think I've lost quite a bit of hearing in my right ear, but hey if that's the worst to come of it then thank god.
My final diagnosis was meningitis, caused by meningicoccal type A (something along those lines, I know it was type A). The scary thing is that the vaccine they introduced a few months ago here since so many kids were dying from it, only protects you from type B, so even if I had been vaccinated I still would've been screwed.
WOW just realised how long that story is, must be kinda boring. Sorry if you read it all and found it boring
I'm just so glad to be hooooome and not have lost any limbs.
