Engine Summer

For some reason they don't talk about aftereffects when you present with meningitis, even though everyone I've met or heard of who has had it has gotten significant and long-lasting issues afterwards. Maybe because it's so idiosyncratic-- like, I hadn't heard of paralysis before; I have the light/sound/temperature issues, a headache, and what I am told is detectable inflammation at the back of my head even lo these years later; my cousin-in-law lost about two inches of her expected height because of the timing of the disease in her childhood and also has substantial back pain. These effects just seem completely unrelated to one another. I do think they should tell people that they are likely to have later problems, though, and that they should expect those problems to be serious and should probably maintain a relationship with a neurologist. Because looking at my life and my cousin-in-law's, we would both have done much better if we had always had neurologists.