I started off with symptoms of a cold which passed in a day. The next morning I had severe diarrhea and that evening came down with a brutal headache. I never get headaches so I took Ibuprofen. It helped some, but I woke up the next morning with severe pain in my head and neck. Like a stubborn fool I tried to work and had to leave early. By noon my head was really throbbing. I went to pharmacist who gave me Tylenol for migraines. I went home and laid in dark. Nausea came next and pain was getting severe. I ended up driving to ER where my head hurt so bad I wanted to crack it open.

For a few days I had what I thought was a cold. I got weaker by the day and wanted to do nothing but sleep. I developed an earache and my husband took me to urgent care. I had a temperature of 102; a right ear infection, nausea, and headache. The doctor checked for neck stiffness and at that time I had none. I was sent home with ear drops and antibiotics. I awoke the next morning with really bad neck stiffness, headache, bleeding ear and horrible nausea. I couldn't raise my head. My husband checked on me a few hours after medication and found me with my eyes open but unresponsive. The local hospital was unable to get a spinal tap on me, but a doctor suspected bacterial meningitis, contacted UVA medical center and IV antibiotics were started at that time. I was airlifted to UVA. I woke up 11 days later in a hospital not knowing how I had gotten there. I had to go through some rehabilitation and was sent home with PICC line and 30 days of two very strong antibiotics.

I thought I had the flu, but as the days went on my condition became worse. I was so sore all over. The pain in my neck became unbearable. It hurt to walk. Then came the migraine headaches. It became so unbearable I finally had my friend bring me to hospital. They took me in right away and the doctor on call said, “ I think you may have meningitis and we need to do a spinal tap right away. “ By this time I was vomiting because the pain was so bad. I was terrified as I had a young daughter and was worried if it was contagious. The spinal tap determined that I did have meningitis but there was nothing they could give me as at the time there was no medicine or antibiotic.

I started out thinking I had a cold, so took cold medications. They would lower my fever and at times my fever would break. I thought I was finally over this and went on my way. About a week later I again got sick and started taking cold medicines again. I never could get my fever to break, had dry heaves most of the time. I wanted to sleep all the time. I had headaches and my neck was bothering me. I thought I was sleeping a lot due to be being sick and my body needed the rest. I thought my headaches were due to the "cold" and my neck was due to me needing an adjustment. I was still trying to make it work, but did miss some days. I finally felt so bad I went to the Urgent Care in the hospital. By the time I saw a doctor my fever was 103. As it turned out, they took me to the ER where the doctor did a spinal tap and CT scan. The scan showed I had a severe sinus infection, and the tap showed I had meningitis. It was later told to me that I had bacterial meningitis. I was in the hospital for a week.

When I had meningitis, I had back, neck pain with migraine headaches and a fever.

I had extreme sensitivity to light, sounds, an extremely painful headache. I have stiffness in my neck and back.

I was 25 in Atlanta, in 1993, a waitress and one say about 1/2 way through the dinner shift my legs started aching, then hurting so vastly I had to go home. The next day I felt like I had the flu and then felt better enough to have dinner. I went to bed fully expecting to feel better and woke with a horrible migraine. I called my mom and for some reason she took it very seriously and called our family doctor who was out of town but the doctor on call happened to be an expert in spinal meningitis! She took one look and tested for neck stiffness and then prepped me for a spinal tap in her office. The protein count was just high enough to not rule out bacterial, but I had no insurance so my mom set up a nurse to come to her house to administer antibiotics. I was in pain everywhere. I dry heaved for two weeks straight. I hallucinated, went to the ER for respiratory depression. I had to have blankets nailed over the windows. I was writhing in pain for a full month. I know if I had been in a hospital I would have died. My mom slept in the room with me. Having constant human contact kept me alive. I was in bed for a month and a half. I still have severe photosensitivity, but of the two other people who got it the same week as me. One lost a hand; another, a foot.