Bill was diagnosed with Meningococcal Meningitis on Thursday, June, 18th. We were in Glacier National Park on vacation. We took him to a small hospital in Cut Bank, Montana, where he was transferred by ambulance to Benefis Hospital in Great Falls.

If you would like to help us, please donate blood. Bill has used a lot so far in his treatment, and hospitals are always in need of blood. Please GO DONATE!

Bill started showing symptoms in the middle of the night Wednesday. He woke up and vomited a couple of times. The next morning it seemed he had the flu.

We were camping in Glacier National Park in a 8 foot pickup camper. It was cold and rainy that morning so I decided to get a hotel room so we would all be more comfortable. Bill continued to get worse, he did ask me to take him to a doctor, so I went to the lobby of the hotel and asked about medical care. The closest facility was 2 hours away in Cut Bank. I asked Bill if he wanted to go  and he said yes, by this time he was slightly delirious from fever. He decided to take a quick shower before we left. That is when I saw the horrible purple rash all over his body and was scared.

We were able to get him into the pickup truck and I had to drive 2 hours over mountain roads and bad weather to Cut Bank. When I pulled up to the ER I wasn't sure that this very small place could help us but since we were there I decided to go ahead and go in.

It was there that my 19 year old daughter, Kayla, was texting her friend that we found out about the outbreak of meningitis in Fort Collins, our home town. The PA in Cut Bank was on the phone to Poudre Valley Hospital immediately and quickly had Bill on antibiotics and was arranging to transport him  to Great Falls.

I was told not to follow the ambulance because he would be going very fast. I wasn't able to go too fast because of the weather. It was rainy and windy, I was only able to drive about 60 miles an hour down the freeway, in the dark and not knowing where I was going or what I was going to find when I got there.

We got to the ER around 11pm I went in and saw Bill for a few minutes and told him that I loved him and told me that he loved me too.

The girls and I were put on some very powerful antibiotics that made us sick to our stomachs.


I was so naive about this disease. I was so confident that he would be fine in a few weeks. I was in for a hard lesson about Meningitis.