Asia Perry's story

My name is Asia Perry, I live in Florida, and today – 14 May 2010 – is my first day back to work after recovering from meningococcal meningitis.

On the day of April 9th, 2010, I woke up very late for work. I felt angry and had a headache, also battling a sore throat that I had for almost that whole week but ignored. Myself , along with other co-workers, had planned to have a small going away party for another co-worker, so we went out to eat. I had one drink, ordered my food and ate.

When I got home I turned the air conditioning on, got into bed. I fell asleep with the most peaceful feeling. When I woke up my body was sore, and I was freezing cold. I remember going back to sleep when my boyfriend came home from work, and waking up some time around 2am to vomit and went back to sleep.

I woke up around 4.30am, sat on the floor and rocked back and forth to try and ease the pain that I was feeling. Everything that touched me hurt. I finally made my boyfriend rush me to the hospital and it's like as soon as I got there something flipped. I didn't know who he was, I didn't know how to tell them when my birthday was. I just couldn't comprehend what was going on, they rushed me to the back and all these nurses started inserting needles, checking my heart rate and blood pressure, saying things and I couldn't understand it.

I fell asleep eventually during all of the chaos, and they put me in a room while they tried to get a neurologist in to diagnose the problem. When he arrived I was able to talk to him and gave him the information he needed, and he mentioned that I might have meningitis. In my head at that time I wasn't worried, or scared, because I didn't know how serious it was. In the state of mind I was in it was the last thing I was worried about. I was trying to go back to sleep to numb the pain that I was in.

Next thing I can remember is waking up to two nurses, and them putting a catheter in, and me not even flinching because there was more pain I was enduring than getting a catheter. The next thing I remember is being rushed to get an MRI. After the MRI I don't remember anything of what happened, I can only go by what my mother and doctors tell me.

I was told after the MRI they felt that it was meningitis and wanted to do the spinal tap. This confirmed their suspicion, and from what the doctors say after the spinal tap I was not responsive and wouldn't wake up. My mom said she came in to see me and I was still unresponsive, but actually started moving around. I started moving around so much that some of the tubes and things were flopping around. She thought I was uncomfortable but the doctors said I was having a seizure, so they rushed her out of the room and got me to calm down.

All of this happened on Saturday April 10th. I woke up on Wednesday April 14th. I was in a regular room, thinking it was still Saturday or at least Sunday, and having a hard time realising that I had been in the hospital for four days already. People at work were worried, my family and friends thought I was going to die, but I don't remember any of this happening. I was released from the hospital that Friday, and have been on the road to recovery ever since.

I do have some memory loss, I am very fortunate in this journey with this disease, and I've realised that after reading many of the stories on this website, and doing some research.

ASIA PERRY
MAY 2010