Meningitis

[summer]

I had a large AN removed 2 yrs ago - last yr I got meningitis and they are not sure why - the doctors are guessing i got it from flying??  I had recently taken a flight for work and they believe something shifted in my head with the pressure in the plane and then i had meningitis a few days later and was taken to the emergency room.  After that i had another surgery called Obliteration of the mastoid with fat packing.  Now I do not fly - since they told me before after my AN surgery to go about my normal life and could do everything after the AN surgery and then I flew a yr later and now the doctors say the meningitis etc could have happened from the flying? and they cant explain it.....so now I do not think I will fly again since there is no other reason they can come up with for the meningitis and the other surgery or what caused it?  Does anyone have any experience with getting meningitis after AN surgery and why it occurs? and how long after the surgery are you able to get it? has anyone had the Obliteration of the mastoid with fat packing from the AN surgery?  I have had this surgery twice - once after a CF leak two wks after the AN surgery and then once after the meningitis bout.  Thanks so much for any info - I cant seem to find much info on these topics and my doctor isnt giving any clear cut info on it.

[jan pentecost]

I personally haven't experineced this but have read about it. Go to a search engine (Google, Dogpile, etc) and put in "meningitis from flying". I think you will read some interesting things about this..
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1118394313724

[David707]

I am very surprised to learn that meningitis has to do with your flying. 

I had my AN removed in January 2005. 

In March, I had a business trip to Asia flying from Houston to Tokyo then to Singapore. Due to the long hours (over 16 hours total for one way), my company wanted me to get approval from my doctor before I went.  When I expressed my concern to my doctor, especially for my CSF leak after the surgery, he told me that the "external" pressure in the air plan should not affect the "internal" pressure in my brain.  With his assurance (twice), I went for the trip and experienced nothing unusal except for onething.  When the airplane was decending, I tried to clear the pressue build up in my ears by blowing hard while noise was held tight.  I could make it "puff" on my good ear, but not on my bad one.  I mentioned this to my doctor after the trip, he gave me some explantion which I did not follow well.  The bottom line is that I have no problem to fly after my AN surgery.

In May, I made another trip to Asia with my family.  Again, everything was just as usual. 

Thanks for sharing your case with us.  Hope you soon find a satisfactory explanation and a good "solution" for it. 

God bless you.

[Joy]

I got meningitis after surgery. I was in critical condition and it nearly killed me. No, I was not flying. You can read about it in "MY STORY" by Joy under General Category.  I hope I never go through that again.

[matti]

I had my An surgery in 1998 and flew shortly after that with no problems. From alot of stories that I have read, many patients travel by air to physicians/hospitals to have their AN surgeries performed. This post is the first I have heard of meningitis as a result of flying. Kinda scary!!!! I always use Earplanes when I fly, because I have such a hard time with the pressure in the cabin and severe ear pain. They seem to work well for me, I just can't hear a darn thing with them in though.

matti