When is Meningitis not Meningitis?

[fizzwheel]

Not my kid, and I dont know how relevant it is. But..

Girl at work, her little boy had a rash, she did the thing with the pint glass and took hiim to A & E as she was worried it was meningitis, Dr at A & E said no, he has chicken pox and sent him home. 3 days later he was getting worse took him back as he started having a fit, turned out it was meningitis and the chicken pox had masked the symptoms.

Her little boy was poorly for along time and its put his development back and he's had an awful lot of catching up to do, but is almost fully recovered and caught up again now.

-Ralph- glad your little one seems to be on the mend.

*Internet = friend or foe in these instances???

Googling as Thulfi suggested last night (I couldn't sleep anyway) helped me a lot to understand what was going on, but these websites can make you hypochondriac / paranoid as well. I came across one site which does a "diagnosis" by process of elimination.

So you start with the main symptom Petechiae, it gives you a list of possible causes

Then you add the next symptom, Fever, it narrows down that list of causes

Then you add the next symptom, Vomiting, it narrows down that list of causes further

Then you add the next symptom, Headache, it leave only one possible cause = Leukemia!

WTF???? Leukemia? He'd better not have Leukemia! Off to google Leukemia and find it is usually diagnosed by a simple white blood cell count, which had already been done. Tell you what I could have punched whichever rrrsshole wrote a piece of software saying that was the only possible cause and stuck it on the internet for every parent to find!

Glad the lil fella is getting better chap. These days things have advanced so much and it can be caught early enough.

I had meningitis when i was three. I died/was resus a coupla times. Had the lumbar puncture too, back then wasnt too great (twas 197. I was strapped to the bed and mum and dad could hear me screaming as they went down in the lift. Left me with nerve damage, i was unable to support my own head and mum had to carry me everywhere as i couldnt walk/talk or do anything but dribble really. I was essentially a cabbage. (i still am a bit )

Somehow, i recovered. I was according to docs a miracle, started school late but soon caught up and overtook other kids my age. Though it left me deaf, i was lucky to keep my speech due to being a 'chatty lil chap' before i got ill so still had the basics. Thankfully i dont remember much 'cept my plastic room.

I still feel very fortunate, because i can switch my aid off when the missus has a moan

There is a lot of crud out there on the interent. As a rule of thumb, avoid websites that are not UK based or clearly unreliable like wikipedia etc.

A diagnosis by process of elmination on a website is ridiculous, and very few medical conditions can be diagnosed in that way (apart from very rare uniqe syndromes). Certainly not the general common symptoms you are describing. Medical history, examination and investigations are crucial in working up a diagnosis, and it's not as simple as typing a load of symptoms into a 'diagnostic calculator'. Petechiae, fever, vomiting and headache doesn't leave the one possible cause of leukaemia and in fact that would be one of the less likely diagnoses, but an important one to exclude (though easily done as youve mentioned by looking at the white cell count).

A very good website that I would recommend is patient.co.uk. There is information there for patients and more detailed sections for the doctors that you can also read. It's always easy to look at a long list of possibilities for condtions that fit certain signs, and it's human nature to worry about the worst one. You'll find doctors are the worst at this, and always think of the worst possible scenario when a family member or themselves have come down with something.

Reading long lists of possible conditions may not be too reassuring, but any good medical website that is worth anything will aim to give the reader some reassurance in terms of epidemiology/statistics before they start listing them.

So glad to hear he`s home and recovering.... what a relief!!! the internet is definitely not your friend at times like this and in fact I thought to myself omg I hope he doesn`t go googling!!! Ewan is on the mend, you have your sanity badk and that`s all that matters.

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

Thanks Dave, he hasn't been on any penicillin, but I read on the internet* that one of the causes of Petechiae is allergy to a drug he has taken. He started on Cetirizine Hydrochoride last Monday to try and tackle swelling and weeping eyes that we believe to be down to hayfever (fields here are yellow as far as the eye can see with oil seed rape, the air smells floral). If it is an allergy to Cetirizine, not a virus though, it will go through a repeat performance at some point this week or next.

Just 'cos he's home and seems better, lets not kill this thread, as with Dave's post, I'd still be really interested in anyone else who's dealt with the same at work, or with their kids. Thanks.

im glad you took my post as ment mate, this happened to me in a perticular situtation its not a diagnosis (far from it) i agree in general the internet is full of it when it comes to medical stuff, the doc's acutally test fo things and are 99.9% of the time right, your situation is completely different so "it's not properly relevent to you" but handy to know none the less

as claire says he's home ,he's well so all is gravy, take it as the way forward and life will return to normal

all the best
dave

My son had menigitis when he was a baby which unfortunatley has left him profoundly deaf and with an Autistic Spectrum disorder all because they did not diagnose it quickly enough. I dnt mean to scare thought i would just share.

Originally Posted by daveyrach

My son had menigitis when he was a baby which unfortunatley has left him profoundly deaf and with an Autistic Spectrum disorder all because they did not diagnose it quickly enough. I dnt mean to scare thought i would just share.

Sorry to hear that, that's terrible for you guys. I have to admit, I knew a non-blanching rash could mean meningitis, and I knew meningitis could be serious or fatal, but I had no idea of what else it was capable of.

[dizzyblonde]

I know my cousin caught meningitis when we were early teens. I can remember everyone being rather alarmed, as she was touch and go if she'd make it. More so for her mum, as shes been pretty high up in the nurse capacity of the NHS for years. Alarming as its exceptionally contagious, and luckily we hadn't been near their house for a week or three, so couldn't catch it, but I think loads of people at school in her class, and hung around with her, were being watched for signs of falling with it.
I know she was off school for flippin ages, not sure if it left her with anything bad, as an after effect, but it was a long time ago.
I'd forgotten about it til this morning.
I think, thankfully if it was the bad type, you'd be biting your nails in hospital. and if hes still gettting better...ALLS WELL

He;s home and feeling better which is the main thing.
Though Like Claire I hoped you wouldn't google but we have a morbid curiosity of these thing ( i still google my mums cancer and feel please when I see things changing for the better)

A friend got menigitis as a teenager and contracted septicimia through it and amputated left foot and right leg at the knee. She had a real bad time and touch and go. But she's made it through and she's wicked on a basket ball court!

As for Leukiemia - you don't want that Garrys neice was diagnosed at 17months and its been hell. You can't gauge pain in a little one and the chemo really does ravage the body. So i'm glad that it wasn't that (but get a slapp on the wrists for googling)

Hugs