Question:
I had pneumococcal meningitis in September 2009 and am having a very hard time still, with constant severe headaches....No aftercare given apart from seeing GP who keeps trying me on different pain killers to try and manage headaches(I am now taking tramadol & cocodamol)...Not knowing how I fell ill with meningitis and the age of 32, obviously no one knows if they are going to fall ill with it...How can we protect ourselves from getting meningitis? Everytime I get a cold now(which seems to be all the time) I completelly freak out thinking that it's meningitis..
Answer:
Professor Robert Read says:
The following answer assumes that your headache has been properly investigated. (Very rarely there can be problems with blood flow around the brain that lead to headaches but this can only be properly evaluated by careful investigation by a neurologist).
However, on the balance of probability, after this length of time its unlikely you have ongoing symptoms directly due to the meningitis. A lot of my patients experience considerable anxiety for quite a long time after this dreadful experience and this is unsurprising, as it is such a frightening event.Anxiety leads to ongoing symptoms. There is no simple remedy for this apart from reassurance and the support of your family, and the passage of time.
With regard to prevention all patients with pneumococcal meningitis should be given the pneumococcal vaccine (pneumovax) which helps make sure that pneumococcal meningitis cannot happen a second time. If your doctors have not given you this you should ask for it.
MeningitisUK · Registered Charity No.1076774
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Reply #1 on : Wed March 03, 2010, 22:25:10
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