1 in a 100,000!!

In my last post I mentioned I felt horrible, well that was an understatement! That night when Jason came home from work, I had him run me to Urgent Care because my fever was 102 and wouldn't come down. Mom was at the house with Bri so he took me. I waited, and waited, and then waited some more. The doctor came in and asked me if my only symptoms were the fever and headache and I said they were and he told me I needed to take myself to the ER for a lumbar puncture because it sounded like meninigitis! I was like excuse me? He said he could neither confirm nor deny without an LP so I went to the car in tears and told Jason. He took me to the ER and the waiting room was full. I felt like I was gonna pass out when I walked in so I just went and sat down and he filled out all the paperwork for me. This was at 9:00PM. They called me back at around 10 for triage and they took some blood, vitals and started an IV then sent me back to the waiting room. Weird I know, but there were several people in the waiting room in hospital gowns and IVs because they had no available rooms...

At midnight, they came for me, finally! And the doctor said my white cell count was super high and that he needed to do the LP to confirm meningitis. They gave me a saline bag and antibiotics in my IV, then a little morphine and then he started. I was super frightened because I just had an epidural and it was no fun! This was no fun either. He stuck the needle in to numb me and that hurt like hell! Then when he was doing the actual withdrawal of spinal fluid, I said I felt like I was gonna pass out then I did. Fortunately I was laying down but it freaked Jason out. The test results were inconclusive until the cultures could be examined in 24-48 hours so they admitted me at 6am. Jason went home to get some sleep and I passed out once in my room.

I spent another weekend in the hospital! Our anniversary weekend! And yes, I did have meningitis. Viral meningits, not the bad one that can kill you, but still bad enough. They discharged me yesterday morning but I had to go back to get another IV of antibiotic this morning and possibly again tomorrow morning. I've been so pumped full of antibiotics these last few days... and vicodin! I was under isolation until Monday morning which meant that everyone who came in my room had to have a mask on. I felt like a leper. And to keep Brianne safe, she has been at my parents house since Saturday morning and I miss her so much! She will be home with her mommy and daddy tomorrow though.

I had been afraid to google meninigitis because I didn't want to read all the bad scary stuff about it. But Jason googled it and it says it can be caught from mosquito bights... Also, the virus that causes it also causes the common cold but in either case, it's like only 1 in 100,000 people actually get viral meningitis so go figure. I had only ever spent the night in the hospital, as a patient, once before this year and that was when I was 4 and had my tonsils removed. This year alone I have had 5 separate stays in hospitals (and that's not counting spending the night with Bri in the hospital). I think I'm due for a break at this point.

Since I still feel like crap and have a pounding headache (and will have for about another week or two) I'm going to crash on the couch (since I won't be able to do this once Bri is home). I just really really hope she doesn't get sick, if she does, I'll never forgive myself.