1. Targets Your Weakness
Chronic meningitis is a slow developing disease. It may be weeks or months before you even notice meningitis symptoms. You're more prone to chronic meningitis if you have a weaker immune system. Cancer, AIDS, long-term drug use and chemotherapy all affect your immune system and make you more susceptible to the disease. Plus, if you have infections like tuberculosis or Lyme disease, watch out. You may develop chronic meningitis.
2. Keep Your Eyes Open
Chronic meningitis is hard to catch because the symptoms are similar to symptoms of other diseases. Chronic meningitis symptoms are really close to symptoms of acute bacterial meningitis. The only difference is that meningitis symptoms show up so much slower. Pay attention to how you're feeling. If you have a headache, fever, confusion or backache you may have chronic meningitis. Also, you may notice you're acting differently. Behavorial changes are a symptom, too. Other meningitis symptoms are numbness, a feeling of pins-and-needles, paralyzed face and weakness. If you feel these symptoms, it's a sign that your cranial or peripheral is being affected.
3. Process of Elimination
When you go to the doctor to get checked out, be prepared for a battery of tests. Your doctor will try to eliminate other diseases and illnesses first. As the process of elimination continues, he will eventually do a spinal tap or lumbar punctures to figure out if you have chronic meningitis. What is he looking for? Increased protein, a higher white blood cell count or low glucose. You may also need to lie very still for a MRI or CT scan.
4. Treating Chronic Meningitis
The type of treatment you receive will depend entirely on which type of chronic meningitis you have--infectious or non-infectious. Your doctor will likely prescribe Prednisone if you have chronic meningitis that is non-infectious. On the other hand, if you have fungal meningitis, the doctor will give you antifungal drugs through an IV. Hope that the cause of your chronic meningitis is viral because the symptoms may just go away on their own. If your chronic meningitis is caused by cancer, your doctor will treat it with chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
5. Time is of the Essence
If you think you may have signs or symptoms of meningitis, see your doctor immediately. Chronic meningitis can lead to permanent disability or even death. It's essential that you go to the doctor, get tested and determine a course of treatment.
