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So I May be Worried Over Nothing...
brandotheninjamaster
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Today I woke up with a horribly sore throat; not sore as in raw, sore as in the inside felt swollen. Its not all that common, but its happened infrequently in the past. Usually its due to me sleeping on back and nasal drip affixing itself to the back of my throat. Usually the pain is gone within an hour or 2; this pain has been constant throughout the day. I happened to casually say something to my boss about this and she said "yea [SoAndSo] has been out of the office because he has meningitis. Hes in the hospital right now" 
I sometimes work around this person in close proximity in a non ventilated room.
Before I get declared an official hypochondriac, I usually half consider going to the doctor when I'm half dead. But given the severity of meningitis should I get checked out? Should I give it day or 2. Thankfully I believe this person has viral and not bacterial. But since this person has viral meningitis, symptoms generally don't develop all at once, but rather over the course of day to weeks.
My little brother was hospitalized with this a few years back so I know firsthand how bad this can be. Then I could be worried about totally nothing.
I sometimes work around this person in close proximity in a non ventilated room.Before I get declared an official hypochondriac, I usually half consider going to the doctor when I'm half dead. But given the severity of meningitis should I get checked out? Should I give it day or 2. Thankfully I believe this person has viral and not bacterial. But since this person has viral meningitis, symptoms generally don't develop all at once, but rather over the course of day to weeks.
My little brother was hospitalized with this a few years back so I know firsthand how bad this can be. Then I could be worried about totally nothing.
brandotheninjamaster on
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That sure as hell beats a lengthy hospital stay.
Also lumbar punctures.
Nuchal rigidity (the classic neck stiffness; pain and actual inability to get a full range of motion from your neck)
High Fever
Mental change (loss of capacity, inability to concentrate, deliriousness)
If you don't have at least one of those, you're rather unlikely to have meningitis (and the doctor probably won't even do a LP). If you have a friend you don't mind looking like a hypochondriac to, though, you can perform this clinical test:
Kernig's Sign: Lay supine, and flex your hips/legs @ 90deg (as if you were sitting in a chair). Then, have your friend extend your knee straight up (as if sitting on the floor with your legs out). If this causes pain, it is a fair indicator of meningitis.
It's very specific to Meningitis, but it will not appear for all cases.
The Wiki entry for Meningitis is rather accurate, so it's actually a pretty good resource.
Frankly, your symptoms sound a lot more like Strep Throat. Do you have little white pustules on the back of your throat, or read bumps on your soft palate?
XBL: LiquidSnake2061
This. I've never heard of Meningitis presenting with sore throat and no other symptoms. Like Jerik said, worry when you have a stiff/immobile neck and a pounding headache with fever.
This sounds a lot like strep, or just a really, really nasty throat cold. You can get checked out. If you think it might actually be strep you should get checked out, because strep takes forever to go away if you don't treat it (and it's insanely contagious).
The most notable sign that meningitis may be a diagnosis, is that your cognition is impaired, meaning disorientation may occur, confusion, lethargy...things of this nature. Another very noticeable symptom of meningitis is a very stiff neck. Virtually everything else that Meningitis displays can be confused with a bad cold/flu...fever, nausea/vomiting, loss of sleep, etc.
Essentially, meningitis is pretty rare, but as you said there is a co-worker that did come down with it, so it is not impossible, but very unlikely that you are becoming sick as a result of that. If you have any doubts/worries I would recommend going to the doctor, as it can never hurt to get yourself checked out.
A home spinal tap kit? Awesome. Post that shit on youtube, man.
The method of infection is the same, sneezing, kissing, licking someone's tonsils. There is a quick test that you can do to tell if you might have meningitis though. Try and touch your chin to your chest, if it's extremely hard or impossible, it's a good sign you probably have meningitis. If not, it's probably something else. Blood tests will tell though.
o_O
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If it feels like your head is about to roll off your shoulders, and you're running a fever, then odds are solid you do. Keep an eye on your vitals, but don't panic.
Also, to clarify about the headache thing. There's a headache, and then there's meningitis. A headache hurts. Meningitis feels like...well. I can't describe the acute pain so well, but it's for goddamn sure nothing like a run of the mill headache. You will know. There are also varying lenghts of the disease if it's viral. My neurologist had it for week, I had it for two months.
Also, make sure you wash your hands often, and it's probably a good idea to dis-infect everything said co-worker messed with as a precaution. The first two weeks I believe are the contagious window for someone with it, but I could be wrong there.
It caused me a lot of pain to do that which is why I went to the doctor in the first place. I went back (not because it was worse but because it wasn't getting better). They had another look down my throat and they said the reason I was having a lot of pain when putting my head down was that my glands are very swollen and inflamed. So no meningitis for me, the doctors still have no idea what I have. They did a flu test which is the weirdest feeling ever and 2 strep tests (I'm not a fan of those); all of which came back negative. The doctor basically shrugged her shoulders and said "I don't know what you have." And sent me home. Wheres House when you need him.
It could also be Mono - but there's nothing you can do for that except take acetaminophen or ibuprofen for your throat pain. They didn't test for Mono?
Nope no mono test. I doubt that it could be mono though. I'm married and I make it a point not to drink off of anybody. Couldn't have caught it from my wife because she doesn't have the symptoms.
If your co-worker has meningitis, everyone who works with him should go to the doctor. It seems kind of irresponsible that your boss wouldn't have already acted upon it.
Regardless of what your symptoms are, if you've been in close contact with someone with meningitis, you should be checked out.
Edit note: We had some meningitis outbreaks in the dorms when I was in college, and the common procedure was for everyone who was close to the infected person to get checked out.
I already went. Doctor did some tests and said that she didn't know what I have, but she I didn't attribute enough of the meningitis symptoms to merit a spinal tap. On her advice I took yesterday to monitor my condition, nothing got worse and nothing improved. Went back to doctor and went through strep and flu tests, of which all came back negative. The doctor at a loss said she didn't know what I had, but she sure that the swelling of glands is what is causing the discomfort in my neck.
Did you at least get anything for the swelling? I'm also getting over some inflamed glands in my face/neck, and my doctor gave me prescription anti-inflammatories. I'm sure you're already doing it, but just take Advil for the swelling and wait and see.
Or, it's just a bad cold and the lymph nodes in brando's neck are swollen causing discomfort. There's nothing you can do about a cold.
Doctor should explained that to you though. Then again, I'm the kind of person that believes that when you should go to the doctor is when you're too sick to get there on your own. That or you're bleeding, or something.
Me too, but I don't mess around with meningitis.
Nope, everything is fine when I eat. I have a little discomfort when I first start, but after a few bites I'm fine.
I thought I'd caught meningitis a couple of weeks back cause of neck pain, general incredible fever and terribility of my condition. I got through perhaps one of the longest nights of my life and concluded that seeing how I wasn't dead it probably wasn't meningitis. I continued to be sick the entire week though. Was a pretty shit week.
It depends. My little brother had it (he was 4 or 5 at the time) and after the spinal tap confirmed it the doctors said that there wasn't a whole lot that they could do. He had to wait it out. Luckily he had the viral type. Now the bacterial type is on a whole 'nother field of play.
So you may have had the viral type and just got better over time. If you had bacterial, you would either be in the hospital or dead from what I understand (which isn't much).
Your doctor passing this off as "I don't know what you have" is a way to get you to ship out so he can keep doing his thing and make money, and incredibly common. Painfully swollen neck glands is the very first obvious sign of mono. Some people get it so bad they can't even swallow.
The next common size is an enlarged spleen (minor heaving lifting, even 10 lbs, can rupture this and cause a need for major surgery), and minor ones include extreme fatigue, loss of appetite, cough, fever, nausea.
Usually looks you up, goes "your neck looks swollen, you have mono" does a throat swab test and calls it a day. The fact that your doctors are baffled by this is amazing, and probably proof you should get doctors.
I'd wager to eat my own cock if I'm wrong but, I'll just say it's pretty fucking likely you have mono.
I know next to nothing about mono, except that it lasts for a while. So I guess whatever I have/had will be a mystery. Honestly though, I'm just glad that it wasn't meningitis.
Keep easy and drink lots of fluids.
That would be absolutely crazy if I had that though. I make it a point never to drink off of anyone or kiss them (:winky:).
Then a week later I wasn't better and gotten worse and went back. My family doctor was back he walked in and said this verbatim, "Wow you look like you're hiding some baseballs in your neck, why didn't they test you for mono a week ago?"
Then he pushed on them and where my spleen was and took a swab and went "I would wager my job that you have mono so I'll let you know in a few days when this lab work comes back."
Two days later I found out I had mono, and I hate going to doctors that aren't my pcp. He's a god damned genius.