Pneumococcal meningitis

The spinal tap results were that she did have meningitis. What strand she had, they did not know yet. It would take 3 days to grow out the culture to find out. In the meantime, they had to GUESS what antibiotics to give her. If they guess wrong, she dies. They did not tell us in the beginning how grave her condition was. When meningitis strikes, death can occur at any moment. The bacteria can also spread through your body to where it gets so bad, they have to amputate limbs to try to save one's life. It wasn't until 12 hours later, at midnight that the antibiotics FINALLY kicked in. She is a miracle. She had 3-4 seizures while in the hospital due to the fluid on the brain, but she was so very lucky. We found out on the 3rd day that she had pnemococcal meningitis. It's a very deadly strand. She beat so many odds. She survived, was not left blind, mentally retarded,did not lost limbs, and at the time we "thought"she has been spared from being hearing impaired. She was in the hospital for 12 days. It's hard to even think about it all these years later. I was so distraught, scared, and stressed on the 2nd day that the pediatrician gave me a prescription for valium. What Mother wouldn't be distraught? They are sitting there telling me all these things that could happen to my child and that she also could potentially have neurological problems when she gets older, but that we wouldn't know for sure until that time came.

http://www.meningitisfoundationofamerica.org/templates/