Mike update

I thought we were finally over the great sickness of Summer 2012, but I was wrong.  Very, very wrong.  Mike was the third boy in our family to get the fever, chills, horrible headache and body ache thing.  I must have a rockin' immune system (knock on wood).  He had it last Tuesday through Friday and then got better and we thought it was over.  Then, Thursday around 10:30am he was teaching a class and he got a horrible headache, chills, and body ache again.  He went to Med Express and they thought it could be Lyme and started treating him for that until the blood work came back to confirm it.  Friday was just as bad.  He was in a lot of pain.  Our family doctor was out Thursday and Friday and we decided to just go to the Hershey ER.  We knew it could possibly be Lyme, but we also knew it could be something else and if it wasn't treated quickly it could be very very bad.  Lyme, West Nile, and Meningitis all have similar symptoms.  We spent 10 hours in the ER.  He had a CT scan and spinal tap.  He was given two shots of morphine and a migraine cocktail and none of that gave him much relief from his headache.  The tests showed that he has viral meningitis.  Thankfully it isn't bacterial- which can be deadly.  I think they pretty much knew he had meningitis right away because of his severe back pain and the #1 sign- he couldn't touch his chin to his chest.

He is home resting and just has to wait it out which is frustrating to him because Mike and laying around is an oxymoron.  He's a very active person.  There's nothing he can take because it's a virus and pain meds don't do anything.  While it can be contagious, he'd have to spit, cough, or sneeze on someone so we aren't really concerned about that.  He goes to our family doctor Tuesday to see if he can return to work Wednesday, but I'm not sure he'll physically be able to go back that soon.  We're just taking one day at a time because if we think too far ahead it gets overwhelming. 

I was so impressed with the care he received at Hershey.  They did get busy and it took a while to get results back, but that's to be expected.  Every doctor and nurse was so kind and personable to each patient.  They treated every patient like they were their only patient.  I can't say enough good things about the people working there.

I also don't know what I would have done without my sister.  I texted her about 100 times that day with questions/concerns, photos of things I didn't know about, etc.  She was so helpful.   I was thankful to have a sister that's a neuro nurse, that's for sure.