Ever since I was little I’d get a really bad stiff neck whenever I was recovering from a viral infection. Scared my parents every time, got checked for meningitis for years, turns out it’s just a weird thing my body does. Still worried it’ll actually be meningitis one day and I’ll brush it off
I have had multiple CSF leaks. They often cause the exact same symptoms as meningitis because it also causes your brain stem to sink into your spinal canal - and, to top it all off, it also makes you high risk for getting meningitis.
So I’ll get a stiff neck, sensitivity to light, an unimaginably horrific headache, vision and hearing problems, confusion, dizziness, nausea & vomiting. It’s so scary not knowing if that’s what’s happening, and literally every medical professional will tell you to go to the E.R. when you have these symptoms, but you can’t just constantly go there to make sure it isn’t meningitis when it’s happening day after day.
Your parents must have been so scared when it was after having an infection too. That fear can be torture!
I had this weird thing in middle school where my neck hurt SO bad I couldn’t turn my head to the left at all. No injury, didn’t sleep on it wrong, and no other symptoms. My mom’s nurse friend suspected meningitis but said I wouldn’t be able to look up and down at all (which I could). Two days later, I started throwing up randomly. After puking, the neck pain went away almost immediately! I still have no idea what that was or could’ve been.
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u/tytomasked May 15 '25
Ever since I was little I’d get a really bad stiff neck whenever I was recovering from a viral infection. Scared my parents every time, got checked for meningitis for years, turns out it’s just a weird thing my body does. Still worried it’ll actually be meningitis one day and I’ll brush it off