Bacterial Meningitis

In the Disease course, we focused on different illnesses and diseases that are in our world today. We were told to interview a family member or friend that had been diagnosed with a disease. If you see any article about meningitis, it says that 20% of people have this disease in their throat. This disease is contagious and my uncle Brad got this disease from the food at a restaurant. Some risk factors are having a compromised immune system, skipping vaccinations, and living/going to a community setting (i.e restaurants, colleges, etc). Some key terms are knowing the difference between bacterial and viral meningitis. Bacterial meningitis is much worse than viral. Another key word is photophobia. That is having an increased sensitivity to light which was one of the main symptoms Brad had.

MF. Bacterial Meningitis. (2015)

My uncle Brad is a 48 year-old man who was diagnosed with Bacterial Meningitis in 2008. He went out to dinner for him and his wife’s anniversary to a persian food restaurant. After dinner he started to feel light headed so he went to lay down at home. The next day, “ I was feeling tired and weak and I had a headache that wouldn't go away. It just got worse and worse everyday. I didn’t want to move, my body was starting to ache, I didn't want any light it was hurting my eyes. Eventually I got a fever and it was going up very high and while it went up, my blood pressure dropped”. After being in a month long coma, the blood in his veins was not flowing to his fingers and toes and so once he finally woke up, “ they became dead. Dead hands and dead feet. Like a mummy.. and thats it, eventually they had to remove the bad parts because they were dead and go from there.”

He now lives without his hand, his arm, his foot, and his leg. This disease caused his meninges, which is the collective name for the three membranes that envelop the brain and spinal cord. What happened to him was his immune system weakened, and the bacteria got into his bloodstream so he had an infection running through his blood. After being affected by this disease, his whole life changed. Having to adjust to not having his important body parts was extremely difficult. Brad explains that, “it changed the way I eat, brush my teeth, the way I shower, the way I get from one place to the next. I had to adapt to a completely different way of life. I have to rely on other people for the things I used to be able to do on my own. The biggest part is understanding that I have to rely on other people. The biggest thing I learned was that I can't get angry about having to get help from others and things taking too much time. I used to do everything: run around, play with my kids, go to my job.” Brad was a lawyer and still currently is but can not go to court and move around as much as he used to. He has a driver that comes and gets his every morning since he can’t drive anymore.

Some of the symptoms he had were that he was feelings tired, never wanted any light (Photophobia) , and that he was feeling very weak. When he went to the hospital, they gave him medicine which caused his blood pressure to go down a lot and that was why his blood was not going to his fingers and toes. He “ just wanted to, I just thought about what the next step was going to be. There are a lot of steps after getting a disease like this. Lots of steps to recovery. I just went through all the rehab.” He was in the hospital for a very long time and when asked what went through his mind when he was first diagnosed, he explained that “The biggest concern was the fear that I was not going to be able to take care of my wife and kids anymore, but the good thing was that the I was not working and I was spending more time with my family.”  After dealing with the aftermath of having this disease, Brad still does all he can to make him and his family happy.