Viral Meningitis Herpes simplex enephalitis

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My daughter was 21 and was taken on Nov.17 2006 to the er by ambulance for a seziure, which she never had before. Her symtoms also were fever vomitting confusion lower level of consiousness headache numness in arms and legs. The er Dr. did blood work a x-ray and ct scan. He told us he was quite sure it was not meningitis but seziure disorder to follow up with a nerologist in a few months for a eeg and released her. The following day I took her to the nearest clinic as she was still very ill. The Dr. there read her hospital record did blood work said her white count was still high but not meningitis but a flu and nothing to worry about. Gave her a shot for her head ache and for vomitting and released her. That night she was taken to another er by ambulance. A lumbar was performed and it was possitive for viral meningitis and herpes simplex enephalitis. My daughter responded at first but on the 22 went into cardiac arrest and life support was with drawn the next day. What is the treatment time for this disease for chance of recovery? Why didnt the first er doctor perform a lumbar puncture with the symtoms she presented with? was this standard of care?
Please helpme find the answers
Missing My Daughter
Cheri
Tacoma Wash.

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@cherimorey,

I had one bout with shingles about four years ago and now I keep acyclovir on hand just on general principles. You can buy the stuff from overseas outlets, supersavermeds.com for instance, and it totally knocks any sort of herpes related thing out in a couple of days. What it would do for herpes related meningitis I don't know but it's likely your best shot.

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@cherimorey,

Cheri,
I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter. Not sure why they didn't do the LP at the first visit. I'm sorry I can't help you with that. Have you inquired with the QA dept of that hospital?

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@cherimorey,

CheriMorey, I am so sorry to hear about your daughter. And it pains me to hear that so many medical personnel screwed up. I believe (I'm no doctor) that meningitis can move pretty quickly (as you saw).

I wish you peace, and answers from someone who knows more than I do.

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@cherimorey,

First off, I wish the best for your family. I'm not a doctor, but I do work in emergency medicine and those are all signs and symptoms of meningitis. Save for money being an issue, I can't understand why a spinal tap was not done sooner.
Viral meningitis is the lesser of two evils (between bacterial meningitis and viral). The symptoms generally last about a week and clear up on their own. There is no known treatment for it, you just have to let it play out on its own. For bacterial meningitis you can take antibiotics but because viral meningitis is caused by a virus, antibiotics are not useful.
Do they know what put her into cardiac arrest? That is NOT something that would be normal for someone with viral meningitis.

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@gungasnake,

Do you not have a doctor who can prescribe medication when they deem it necessary? Why are you buying anti-viral medication from overseas outlets online?

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@majikal,

Dont know how you came up with that answer. I never bought medication overseas And I took my daughter to a hospital and a medical clinic where I thought she would get proper care My daughter died as a result of the doctors not properly diagnoising her and perviding the medication she needed
Cheri,

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@majikal,

Dear Majkal
Thank you for your reply. My daughters cardiac arrest was caused by the swelling in her brain, As for meningitis and herpes simplex enephalitis now that I educated myself on the symtoms she had most all of them when she went to the first er room. Dont understand why the Dr. said it was seziure disorder and at least done a lumbar puncture to rule it out.
Cheri

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@littlek,

Littlek
Thank you for your reply. As for what happened to my daughter it is a nightmare I will have for ever as to the question why the doctors I entrusted to help her did not provide her the medical care she needed
Cheri

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@martybarker,

Martybarker Thank you for your reply . I have tried the hospital and the clinic but to know revail. However I have not given up.
Cheri

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@gungasnake,

Dear Gungasnake
The medication you describe is what they finally gave my daughter but saddly it came to late.
Cheri

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@cherimorey,

Cherimorey,

My sincere and heartfelt condolences on your daughters passing.

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@cherimorey,

Cheri - My mistake, I should have been more clear. My question about medication overseas was directed at "gungasnake". He had stated he had a stash of medication and I was inquiring...

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@LionTamerX,

LionTamer
Thank you for your reply,I Love and miss her so much
Cheri

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@majikal,

majika
So glad you understand .
Tank yoy
Cheri

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@majikal,

Most doctors can prescribe anything you want, all day long. On Monday morning that is.... I keep stuff around on my own for the times when somebody gets sick on a friday evening.

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@cherimorey,

First of all let me tell you I am so sorry for your loss I am a 30 yr old woman with 2 children and I have been battling Chronic re-occuring hsv2 encephalitis for the last 8 yrs I have been hospitalized 12 plus times I even had it while I was pregnant with my now 3 yr old daughter at 33 wks. My daughter is Hsv2 free and I have never had a problem because I go to the hospital as soon as I start to run a fever. Time is very important with this disease because your membranes are swelling around your spinal cord and brain Which in turn can cause death if untreated I can say that all of my episodes are stress related I always flare up when I am stressed I take a daily regimine of acyclovair 400 mg 2x's daily

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@cherimorey,

I also want to say the symptoms usually go in this order (with me anyway). First the headache starts....then it get's worse and my neck gets stiff.....then my body starts to ache like I have the flu.....then I start to run a fever and with having it for so long I know it's time to go to the hospital. Unfortunately it is rare that it re-occures as mine does So diognosing it was difficult which was probably the case with your daughter It took them 5 episodes of it before they had it properly diognosed Living with this is not easy and it is very debilitating I have had over 12 lumbar punctures which has caused back problems for me and every episode gets more painful and takes me longer to recover anyway I don't mean to ramble just want you to get as much info about it as you want to get Again I am so sorry about your daughter It is so scary for me because I know how serious this disease is!

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Viral Meningitis Herpes simplex enephalitis

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