meningitis or encephelitis(believe it or not)

  : Im 52 years old man and suddenly over a three month period i began
  : I am a 52 year old man suffering emphalitis symptons.
  : For  five weeks i experienced major migrane (migraine) headaches,sore neck,
  : the back of my head behind the ears felt like it was going to
  : explode and pain raidiated down to the back of the neck.
  : My eyes became very sensitive to light and then demenchia set in.
  : After many months of different antibiotic pills the symptons
  : gradually reduced to a lesser degree.There was never an exact
  : diagnoses but six months later my family doctor said it was
  : probably encephalitis.The catch is, that this happened in 1994
  : four years ago and ever since, i have to be on antibiotics regulary
  : because of re-occouring respitory infections which occour about
  : every three months or the original symptons come back and my
  : concentration gets bad,and the dementia starts again.I have never
  : sen a neuroligst or been tested for encephalitis.Im presently
  : using novo-amoxin-500 and cefaclor-500 every two to three months.
  : This small town boy needs your advice. Excuse the spelling.Thanks
  :    
============================================================================
Dear Carl:
The nature of you problem is unclear to me. If you indeed do have dementia, you are doing a fairly good job posting an informative message on this forum!
If you indeed do have real cognitive difficulties, it is very important that their cause be identified. Although possible, I think it is difficult to implicate a diagnosis of encephalitis on the basis of the relatively minor other neurological symptoms you have had. There are numerous causes of dementia in a 52 year old individual, some of which are treatable, such as brain tumor, hydrocephalus, endocrine deficiency, vitamin deficiency, chronic nervous system infection, etc.
In addition, it is unclear to me why you are on antibiotics so frequently. Your doctor should be able to explain to you the precise reason why you need these drugd.
I think it is very appropriate that you seek neurological consultation, and also probably get a second internist's opinion. Visiting a major tertiary academic center near you may be a good idea.
I would partially agree with Lori's comments, if you do indeed have infection.