What would it be like to live your best, most exciting, amazing life? I was recently asked this question. As today is World Meningitis Day, I thought this would be an excellent time for me to reflect on my answer as a bacterial meningitis survivor of 20 years.
World Meningitis Day on October 5th is an important day that we come together globally to honor everyone who has been impacted by meningitis, and remember those we have lost. It’s a day to raise awareness and call to action as we continue to work together to defeat this disease.
It is heartbreakingly easy to point out what meningitis has taken from me and those that I love. Its devastation is and has been felt every second of every day since it came into our lives. What I am determined to do with that pain is to transform it into something better, something beautiful, something that will spare someone else from this pain my family and I endure.
I’ve had all the surgeries, procedures, literal titanium, and even three machines implanted in my spine to help me fight this pain. They help, and I am grateful to modern medicine for keeping me kicking. Though the one thing that truly makes me feel better about surviving meningitis is doing something to help protect others from it.
My dream life changed the day I contracted meningitis. Now my dreams are for other impacted families to feel mercy and relief in their suffering. My dreams are for no other parent to hear the horrible news that they are losing their child to a horrific and ruthless disease. My dreams are for no other survivor to suffer the excruciating pain and debilitating conditions that can follow. My dreams are for no more lives to be lost.
My dream life is a world without meningitis.
You can help make this dream come true for all of us. Get educated on bacterial meningitis, learn more about vaccination and protecting those that you love. Start by checking out the graphics below, and visit the American Society for Meningitis Prevention at meningitisprevention.org, and get involved globally with Confederation of Meningitis Organizations at comomeningitis.org.
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