Sandy Cirino's story

I had meningitis in June 2002. My daughter had hand, foot and mouth disease and I ended up with meningitis from that virus, so they say.

My first horror to the ER was on a Friday night. The pain and pressure in my head were so unbearable I couldn't get off the floor. The squad was called and off I went. Thank God my mom was there to witness what had taken place. (Not that it matters now nothing can be done).

I was put in a room and I remember it felt like hours before the doctor came in. I was sent for a CT and then a spinal tap. I wasn't given anything for pain until after the spinal. The nurse and doctor came in and told me how to position myself, my feet were dangling and the doctor wanted something under them to push against, so the nurse went and grabbed a dirty tool box! I'll never forget that.. The doctor tried but was having problems; he kept jamming that needle in my back over and over. He said don't move and left. My mom watched him run around the ER looking for help. Meanwhile I sat crunched over with a tube sticking out of my back. It took a while and another doctor came and got the needle in. I lost so much spinal fluid my bed was soaked where I sat. They said lay down and left.

Twenty minutes. later the doctor came in and said you have viral meningitis and sent me home with just some pain meds. I continued to get worse.

On Sunday the squad was called again, back to the ER. They said I had a spinal tap headache and sent me home.

By Monday I prayed my head would just explode. Squad #3. This time I was thrown in a room hooked up to pain meds and they shut the door. After a day in the hospital a nurse came to my room and said, "you’re being discharged". Something about my insurance. I wasn't the type to speak up, back then! I had awesome insurance.

It's been 12 years, over 20 something doctors, countless medications and headaches 24-7. No one will take me seriously and when I say I wasn't treated and the hospital screwed up, I'm completely shut down.

I was in the hospital April 2012 from yes head pain! But new added pain. I now have Chiari malformation! Which nothing can be done till it's almost killing me. Gotta live with that pain also.

Anyway, an infectious disease doctor came in my room. She was whispering and kept looking at the door, I thought that was strange! She told me that my headaches were from not being treated, that the meninges are damaged and since it's been so long this is my life now.

Sandy Cirino
October 2014