‘I went for a nap thinking I had a cold - but woke up and realised something was badly wrong’
A MUM of two said her world was turned upside down when she was left needing urgent treatment after contracting viral meningitis.
Alison Westwood tried to cure the illness with painkillers, thinking it was just a cold, before realising she had a potentially life-threatening condition.
Alison, from Porthcawl, was diagnosed with the condition 21 years ago, and it left her with poor short-term memory, inner-ear damage and chronic fatigue at the age of 40. As a result she was no longer able to work as a physiotherapist, which was a career she had worked hard to achieve.
It took her several years to adjust to life after being hospitalised.
But fast-forward to today, and she has been doing better than ever – and now runs a successful community trust company with her husband.
Now that she has made almost a full recovery, one thing Alison is calling for is more awareness of the symptoms of viral meningitis.
When Alison first started to notice symptoms, it began with a headache at work which got worse throughout the day, but she was keen to push through her discomfort.
She had friends to visit that evening, and took more paracetamol in an attempt to reduce the pain, dismissing it as being nothing serious.
That night, Alison could hardly sleep due to the symptoms, with the pain radiating across her face.
She thought she may be suffering with sinusitis, so took some decongestants.
“My children were very young at the time, so being mum was at the forefront of my mind. I think they were only one and three, and I just sort of struggled through the following day,” Alison recalled.
“I had a bit of a lie-down in the afternoon and my husband came to wake me up. And when he turned that light on, I was in instant agony. Photophobia really kicked in and I couldn’t stand the light at all.
“I think that’s when we both realised that something was badly wrong, and John insisted that he rang the outof-hours doctor and took me up to the hospital.
“I saw a GP initially and couldn’t stand the lights in the room so he kindly reduced them down to a minimum and he told me that I needed to be admitted.
“That was a bit of a shock when he said that to me, as I still thought I had sinusitis or something and would just get some antibiotics or something and be sent home. But I was admitted and had a CT scan and a lumbar puncture, and by the early hours of the next morning, about 1 or 2am, they told me it was meningitis and started treatment.”
Meningitis is an infection of the tissues covering the brain and spinal cord – and Alison was diagnosed with the viral form as opposed to bacterial meningitis.
The symptoms of both conditions can present in a similar way.
Alison said: “It was viral, not bacterial, but they treated me for both forms just for backup. Bacterial is the one which most people are very aware of, because it can cause septicaemia, and obviously then you can have issues with limb-loss.
“But viral, although it’s often mild, can be severe and can be fatal.
“My eldest remembers his dad telling him at the time that I was very ill and might not come home and that was obviously what they were told – that I was very ill. And when I look back, I’d had symptoms for 24 hours really and I think if I’d taken myself to hospital sooner, I may not have become quite so ill.”
The whole family had to adjust to what had happened, as Alison could no longer do all the activities she was so used to doing, so her parents moved across the country from Northamptonshire to South Wales to help with the family’s daily life.
They also had new financial pressures with Alison no longer able to work. It wasn’t until 2010 that she started working again, this time in the charity sector.
Reflecting back on the time when symptoms were at their worst, Alison said: “Without my parents, I think life would have been really difficult. I wasn’t able to drive for about three years, so just moving the children around, taking themselves to their friends, picking them up from school – I wasn’t able to do any of it really.
“I’m pretty good now. I can manage dizziness and vertigo when I get them, but that is less frequent than it used to be.
“When I get a cold, it takes a lot more out of me and knocks me about much more than it would have done in the past, so I do find that my health isn’t quite as good as it was.
“I wouldn’t say I’m quite back to where I used to be, but I can drive and I’m very active. I had a good recovery eventually but it has taken a long, long time. When I was at my worst, I wasn’t the same person who is speaking now.”
In an effort to raise money for the charity, which supports people with the disease, Alison and her son Huw will soon be taking part in a charity fire walk, and are raising money via their GoFundMe page.
To donate, and help their cause, you can visit their fundraiser at gofundme. com/ f/ alison- huw- fire- walk- formeningitis-now
Meningitis Now explains on its website that symptoms of meningitis can appear in any order. Some may not appear at all. Early symptoms of meningitis can include fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhoea, muscle pain, stomach cramps and fever with cold hands and feet.