Can any long term side-affects appear after suffering from viral encephalitis?

My husband was diagnosed 5 years ago. He spent a week in the hospital and then home care for 2 weeks. I am very frustrated as within the last 2 years he has developed side effects. I would have thought that they would have shown up right away. I also have a concern as they are sporadic and not consistent. It has been very hard on my marriage and I don't know what to do anymore! Has anyone else been the caretaker and the brunt of all issues associated with this disease? Can these side effects really come and go?????

Hello all. I am a 53 year old male and have had this bad boy twice. ...That's right twice. I've run the gamit. Loss of short term memory,I drop things more and more, my joints hurt more and more, i have periods of weakness and at times my eye sight gets blurry. All of this comes and goes. Some days I'm ok....sometimes my body hurts SO bad that I can hardly get off the couch. I've run the same gamit as a lot of you. Doctors and people make you feel like your insane. the tests come back GREAT....than how come I feel like c**p. They tell me that it's slow progressive and no treatment. Which really bummed me out...than I read these posts and I don't feel so insane anymore. Thank all of you for that. Please let me know if any of you here of a treatment.....oh...and do any of you stutter from time to time. That's another gift that I think this stuff gave me. Thanks much

I'm 50 and had encephalitis following mumps when I was in grade 2 (age7). I was sick and vomiting and convulsed. I was taken to hospital and was in a coma for two months. My mother was told I would be a vegetable if I woke. I woke and was able to walk and talk and tested intellectually quite well. Throughout school, I had to work very hard to pass. In university, I took a math course, got 93% on the final and a year later looked at a binder with my handwriting in it and my work and couldn't even remember doing any of it. Sometimes I can remember things as if it was yesterday and sometimes I drawn a big confusing blank. My work history has suffered, as I sometimes forget tasks or instructions.  I rarely remember names and am a list maker,calendar marker and am highly organized (coping mechanism). I am clumsy at times and have suffered from migraines which usually last about 3 days, followed by two or three days of "fragility". Like others, discussing this with GP's results in the typical "HMMM, okay." followed by a change of subject. Given how rampant this is, where is OUR telethon? Where is the Encephalitis Run For Research?

 

Hello All

I am goimg through this as well at the age of 45 i went into hospital on the 9/1/2013 for 7 days i was unable to speak or move my left side it was like i had a stroke the doctors at the hospital  did not pick if up it was my GP who new exactly what it was i still have trouble talking my speach is about 95% movemenyt on my left side is 90% and i get very tired and angary.Dose this go away after time as i am feeling frustrated with this as i am a active person? The medical people have very little info or help i am tring to do my own rehab and get on top of this i feel for people who have gone through this,encrphalitis Thanks for reading this Andrew

While enlisted in the Navy, I came down with viral encephalitis in 1974 at age of 27.  I remember the tremendous painful headache and than having trouble standing up.  I went to the doctor/hospital several times in a 24 hour period where they finally told me to report to a military installation as I was on RR at the time.  Was admitted to Patterson Army hospital in NJ, a spinal tape was done and the quarentee'd me to the top floor of the hosptial.  All I remember was my wife in a black sweather bedside when they gave me some sort of pain killer.   Don't really know how long I was out, however when I awoke there were like a dozen other military guys (from different branches of the military) in the same large room, with the same malady!  I guess my recovery was ok, however I don't recall how long I was hospitilized?  I am 65 today and so many things in my life I cannot remember?  At family gatherings we laugh and talk about things from the past, I listen to the detail in the converstations (important things) and just don't remember them?  I ask how can you remember that and they look at me like I had two heads.  Math drives me nuts, while I was never good in math/algebra, I have such a hard time just balancing my check book.  It's like a frustration sets in and I don't know why.  I check my math with a calculator and still the errors keep coming!  I read these posts with interest as so many complaints are common to me.  To make matters worse I was also bitten by a bat couple years latter and had to go through all the vaccinations for rabies!  I understand that there some sort of correlation between the treatments and side affects? 

Hello! 

I had viral encephalitis and pancreatitis at age 5. I was hospitalized after I started seizuring and I went into a coma for a day. The Dr's thought I would wake up in a vegetable state. I am now 29 years old. I have a lot of pain and have been diagnosed with chronic fatigue, IBS, Hyper mobility joint syndrome,fibromialgia, and PTSD. I was abused as a child so weather the encephalitis caused any of this I will probably never know. I also feel weak most of the time and lose my balance sometimes. I ,like someone else said have had scarlet fever before. My immune system seems almost nonexistent. I suffer from chronic UTI's that will not resolve without antibiotics. Doctors of course won't help and they just tell me to exercise to reduce the pain! I am not being treated for pain so my brain is always foggy and I feel like I am sleep walking. I am very smart and can learn well but I have trouble remembering things.

I thought I would throw in my experience here as well for others to learn.  

I am now 78 years old. During the summer when I was eight I experienced an illness characterized by high fever, headache, vomiting, double vision and roaring in my ears. I was not seen by a doctor. Later that year it was discovered that I had lost all  hearing in my right ear. This is permanent. I lived in an area with a very high mosquito population and where there  were sporadic outbreaks of equine encephalitis. It was suggested some years later that my illness was probably encephalitis. My intellectual functioning was unimpaired (I have earned a PhD), but i have experienced recurring clinical depressions all my life and until the end of menopause experienced several very severe headaches a week.  But the after effect that disturbs me most is my life-long inability to control weeping, often in public and in response to relatively trivial matters.This causes me great embarrassment and shame, since in all other respects I seem to be a functioning, mature professional.  Can all or any of this be an after effect of encephalitis or is it just a character weakness?   It would be nice to find out before I die.   Judith in Canada  

 

I am so happy I found this website and that people are talking about this! My name is Ryan, and I am 18 years old. All my life I have been healthy, I was never the person to get sick very often. The occasional stomach virus when it came around, but I would always have been described as a sick person. For my entire life I was also regarded as very introverted and shy. Christmas Eve 2008, when I was just starting out my freshman year of high school, I contracted Viral Encephalitis. Initially I was vomiting, I could not walk nor use the bathroom. I was sent to the emergency room and was given fluid, for the doctors initially thought I was dehydrated. They asked me questions, but over time I faded. I got them wrong, I was saying nonsensical things, getting the date wrong, the President wrong, etc. I was given a spinal tap and then was diagnosed. I do not remember this nor much of the 4 weeks I was in the hospital. I do remember not being able to walk, not being able to talk, and not being able to swallow. However when I do remember this, I was cognitively aware, but I couldn't do anything.  I also got pneumonia while I was there, and doctors at that time thought I might die, or as many of you posted, be a vegetable or not who I was. By some miracle, I pulled out my feeding tube and made a recovery. For months I went to a rehabilitation center, and it took me some time to get back on my feet. High School was great, I participated in my school musicals, a capella competitions, graduated with a 4.1 GPA and now go to a great college. But recently I have become depressed at times, emotional even. I have a girlfriend who is a senior in high school and I find myself not enjoying college as much as wanting to be attached to her. Sometimes I just cry because I miss her so much, and I don't think I have ever felt as miserable as I do now. I am planning on transferring to a school in New York City, so that I can attend an even better school then I do now, and also be closer to her, for she is attending school there as well. My academics are fine, and ever since I was sick I have been said that I am more extraverted, even though I thought I was that coming into high school. I forget a lot of small things, and I lose things easily, but I have always been that kind of person. This time in my life is so strange, my parents and I have fought alot more about my decision making and my attachment to my girlfriend, and we don't see eye to eye on it. My mom says I'm crazy and calls me names, but I know that she just must be frustrated, because growing up I had a wonderful relationship with my parents. I don't know what is happening, whether I'm depressed or have residual effects after my encephalitis. I seem to be the youngest person I've seen post in here, and I would really like to get some help. I'm young, I'm doing well in my life so far, but certain things are making me so sad. Please reply to this if you want to talk and give advice, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Your tears, depressions an d headaches sound very familiar to me. See my post from Feb.2013 where I talk about my post encephalitic problems. The illness occurred when I was eight. I have permanent and total deafness in one ear, but what bothers me most are my seemingly uncontrollable emotional meltdowns which have embarrassed and humiliated me for 70 years.

I would like to know more, to to have similar memories, and I am 43, Ontario, and maybe we had this at the same time.
I have to write things down, and have ringing in my ears.
No one has Really said what the Lo.g term affects are.

I am a teacher of students with severe and multiple impairments (severe cognitive impairments, severe physical impairments and are medically fragile).  I have a student who is 12 years old and at age 10 got severe encephalitis.  She is from Myanmar in Burma and has only just recently moved to the United States.  She was not receiving the appropriate tx in Myanmar while she was sick and suffered a severe stroke as well.  She now suffers not only from complications due to the encephalitis such as inability to speak, eat or drink, severe cognitive delay but she also struggles with hemiplegia of the right side (weakness in her right extremities).  She is improving so much it is amazing to watch.  She no longer is walking with a walker, she is beginning to try to talk, she is opening her right hand more, and she is trying to rebuild other skills that were lost (holding a pencil, going to the bathroom independently, and other functional/adaptive skills).  Her receptive language astonishes me....she appears to understand A LOT but struggles to make the connection to play out the action most of the time.  She is able to have a conversation with someone as long as she is asked yes/no questions (she answers yes but not no).  I have asked her if she remembers before she got sick and she answers yes....does anyone else remember their lives prior to getting sick?  I believe her when she says that because she appears to get frustrated with herself when she is unable to do something and sometimes tries to do things that she is unable to do yet.  She is such a hard case for me because most of my students were born with extremely rare syndromes/disorders and to have her that was progressing "normally" until 2 years ago breaks my heart and I can only pray and hope for her to regain most of her abilities back.  I don't know much about encephalitis and have been doing a lot of research to try to understand it more...any input would be greatly appreciated!

My fiancé was diagnosed with encephalitis a little over two months ago. He spent three das in the neuro ICU at an excellent hospital, and was then put in step down unit/rehabilitation center for about six weeks. He currently lives with him mom and dad, who are the primary caretakers. I'm so worried about the long-term side effects and if his speech will ever return to a somewhat normal state. He uses a walker and a wheelchair to get around right now. His intelligence is all still there, it's a matter of him not being able to use the words he wants to. He can tell you everyone's names and their relationships to him. He sees me sad and he always asks "What I do?" and I can't explain to him why. I guess I just need to know it will get better.

Hello,I'm writting about my daughter who had caught encephalitis at 15months.This was the most devastating news for us as there was no warning.I put her to bed and the next morning I thought she was dead .She was having a seizure.Long story short we spent 14 days in the hospital .While we were there she possibly aquaired bacteria encephilitis.She has so many post encephlitis problems , epilepsy,cerebral puslsey,gross and fine motor skills ,speach & language.I as a mom feel so helpless because she can't always commicate what she is feeling.I also feel that it should be reconized by the government for finnancial support .We almost lost our house because of private therapy costs.There is also no support group other than brain disorders. When she first got sick her G-grandmother contacted the Record they weren't interested.A small little community paper did a story on her. When asked what I hoped to get from this I said all I wanted was to beable to talk to another mother for support whose child had the same thing I got no reply so here's hoping I can find some support with this message.She is now 6 yrs old.What is it going to be like for her as she ages?

Thank-you

MELODEE 

Does anyone know anyone else who had encephalitis at a newborn age? My son is 5 years old now and had encephalitis when he was 2 weeks old (with lots pf seizures too). He's had a rocky road since then and I am wondering if any or all of his problems are related to his infancy illness? He has allot of autistic tenancies. Very poor social skills - cannot play with or relate to other children. He is exceptionally smart and had a good memory on many things, but not so good on other things. At times it’s unbearable to be around him because he is so out of control.  I can’t take him to grocery stores or church or public places.  He gets anxiety over loud noises - even the toilet flushing.  I am home schooling him because he does not do well in a room with 20 other kids.  I am desperate to find a way to help him become a normal functioning child. I was wondering if anyone else knows anyone from infancy who had encephalitis and possibly compare development with them? Thank-you!

Hello, My name ie Melodee and I'm on this post above yours.My daughter has some of the the problems your son has ie;loud noises,flushing of the toilet is the worst she will avoid going to the bathroom ,she gets so out of control that I 'm worried she is going to seriously going to hurt us or her sister. She takes TRILEPTAL AND CLOBAZAM to control seizures.I think that I've figured out no to tellher we are going somewhere and when we do ther is consiquences or rewards.She no problems at school as of yet she loves it and Ifind that she is better with routine.ie going to bed and getting at same times as well as eating 4x to 6x daily with snacks. Crunchy things really help. I don' t know ware you live but here ware Ilive we have a plce called KIDSABILITY and I've spoken we a syocalogist and it has helped or your pediatrion should help but make it the worst case senario.Hope this helps .My email is not blocked so maybe we can help each other. Melodee