Survivor Stories

Sarah Pryor

Hi, my name is Sarah Pryor and I recently had meningitis.  It was a very long and tough battle; somehow I made it through though. Some how throughout all of this no one else contracted the disease.

Here is an overview of my life: I am 25 years old. I have a son who at the time was 1 1/2 years old; we live with my boyfriend and his son. I've had no major medical problems in my life. My dad however had a brother who died at the age of 4 from spinal meningitis.

They are still not sure what type it was. It all started the first week of April, I went to my primary care doctor concerned about a sinus infection, and he gave me some prescription medication. On April 7, 2006 I went to an Urgent Care facility because my throat hurt so bad I couldn't eat, they told me that my tonsils were so swollen that I needed to go to the hospital and have them drained and possibly removed. I headed over to the hospital for the doctor there to say "Oh, they aren't that swollen" he gave me some antibiotics by IV and some pain medicine, they sent me home with some prescriptions. After a week passed by I began having these awful headaches and my eyes were very sensitive to light and I had absolutely no energy at all.  By Easter April 16, 2006 my mom came over to my house early in the morning to watch my  son open his Easter basket when she got there I was still in bed, she took one look at me and knew there was something wrong. Mom took me to the hospital immediately. I spent all day in the ER while they did tests, finally I got a spinal tap which is when they immediately realized it was meningitis and started me on antibiotics. However they couldn't tell what kind, so my spinal fluid was sent off to grow cultures and find out what type it was. In the meantime I was admitted and put on the infectious disease floor! Everyone that came in the room was supposed to wear masks, gloves, and gowns. My family and boyfriend refused though, they had already been exposed, and so what's the difference. I was in the hospital for a week and half and then sent home with a pic line and antibiotics I had to administer my self through my pic line. Still, the cultures never grew to tell us what type of meningitis it was. 

About a month later I was beginning to feel back to myself, except for the anxiety. So I went to my doctor who gave me some new medicines to try help to with the anxiety. After being on the medicine for a few days I went back to my doctor and told her that something didn't seem right. I kept telling her something was wrong with my eye, maybe an eye infection. She looked at my eye and said there was nothing wrong with it, she also changed my medicine (I think she thought I was crazy). Well the next morning I woke up and I was completely blind in my left eye! Once again my mom took me to the hospital. They did another spinal tap which confirmed I still had meningitis and I was started on more antibiotics. They ended up calling in a retina specialist from another hospital to help with my eye.  It turned out the meningitis had some how traveled to my retina and attacked it. The retina doctor did a surgery on my eye where he took out some of the fluid inside of my eye and injected some antibiotics in there. Amazingly it worked! He had told my mom there was a very small chance I would ever able to see out of that eye again, he saved my vision! I now have 20/30 vision in that eye and it will never get any better, but it's better than being blind! So I spent another week and half in the hospital and had another spinal to make spinal tap #3 with in 2 months, they did determine that the meningitis was almost gone. Once again I came home with a pic line and I had to give my self antibiotics through my pic line.

Thankfully after the two month ordeal of meningitis, it was over!!!

My heart goes out to all the families who have gone through this. This is one tough disease to battle. If you would like to contact me my email address is: spryor@amfam.com.

Did this story move you? The Meningitis Foundation of America provides these stories so that families can share their experiences with Meningitis. It is with your financial support that these families have a voice - please click here to make your tax-deductible donation today.