The diagnosis
The doctor will make the diagnosis based on your medical history and symptoms, so make sure to be precise and give accurate information as possible. Do not feel shy to say I do not remember, or I am not sure. This is always better than lying and giving false or inaccurate information to the doctor. Faking symptoms or giving a wrong history to the doctor may misguide him and delay the appropriate treatment for you.
The doctor will look at the signs your body shows and hear the symptoms you feel, then will usually order some tests for you. These tests may include swab of your throat or respiratory tract, as this is typically the place where bacteria that cause bacterial meningitis are present.
You may be wondering now why the doctor search for bacterial meningitis? Isn’t the disease we are talking about a viral type of meningitis?
Here you should know about what doctors call differential diagnosis. Differential diagnosis is having symptoms and signs that are shared between more than one disease, so doctors in these cases try to exclude the most common, the most dangerous or easier to diagnose first. So, in our case, it is required to exclude the most dangerous disease, which is bacterial meningitis, by checking for the presence of the bacteria that may cause it in the throat where it usually resides.
Doctors may also draw some blood from you and require a cerebrospinal fluid sample to test them.
