Meningitis in your words

Yosselin Medrano's story

Location: USA
Categories: Unknown meningitis and septicaemia (sepsis) type
Age: Child 6-12
Relationship: Self
Outcome: Recovery with after effects
After effects: Other

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Meningitis in your words
Yosselin Medrano

Two days after my 11th birthday, I woke up with a horrible headache. I had gone to my aunts so she would babysit me and my brother. As I was there I had a really painful headache and I thought it was just because I was hungry. I ate, but it was hard cause I also didn't feel hungry. My parents came to pick up me and my brother. I told my mom about my headache so she sat in the back of the car with me and massaged my head.

"It felt like I was being stabbed in the head with a knife. It is hard to fall asleep when your head feels like it's going to explode"

When we got home my parents told me to lay in bed and rest but as I was getting ready to rest, it felt like I was being stabbed in the head with a knife. It is hard to fall asleep when your head feels like it's going to explode.

Later like at 3 a.m, I woke up and woke up my mom saying that I felt like I was going to vomit - which I did like six different times from 3 a.m to 5 a.m. Later when it was 8 a.m I woke up and the pain just wouldn't go away so my mom told me to that she was taking me to the doctors. As I got up, I felt like I was going to collapse. I felt so weak and as I turned to the door to get out the room my eyes were burning. It was a very painful feeling; almost everything went black, but getting in the car was even worse.

When we got to the doctors, I got a shot to help the pain but it didn't help at all. Then my doctor realized that this was far worse than what he thought, so they sent me to the Riley children hospital where they found out that I had meningitis. They told me that there was a chance I might not survive and a chance that I will. I got a shot in my back to take some fluid from my spinal cord to run some tests on it.

"When I woke up I was able to get up and move around and play on the wii and with some play-doh"

While I was being poked I was squeezing my dad's hand, but when the needle touched my spinal cord everything went black. My dad went out and got me broccoli soup and said he was leaving with my brother. Apparently I said bye back but I don't remember any of that. Six hours later I woke up and was hungry but I wasn't allowed to eat anything so I had to starve. Later that night I was feeling better and I got a chance to talk to a doctor, which was good cause I want to be a Doctor when I grow up.

I had to go to sleep but I didn't get any sleep when nurses were coming in my room to check if I'm still doing alright. It's also hard to sleep with something in my arm to keep it straight, or else the alarm will go off. At 4 a.m one nurse came in to check my blood pressure. Then I finally got some sleep.

When I woke up I was able to get up and move around and play on the wii and with some play-doh. Later that day I was good to go and I was so happy that it was over. I still felt some pain in my arm for like one week but after all that I was happy to be home, alive, and healthy again.

Yosselin Medrano
February 2016