MountainMornings

I am more likely to fill Bob’s inbox with news he just can’t refuse or use, but recently he sent me this: http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/04/health/west-nile-virus/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 Here is the hook-catching first sentence – “The United States is experiencing its biggest spike in West Nile virus since 2004, with 241 cases of the disease reported nationwide this year so far, including four deaths, health officials said.”

It was August in 2004 when I woke up thinking my head was going to explode. It was the worst headache of my life, or maybe the second worst after experiencing the Hong Kong flu back in the 60s. I don’t get migraines and rarely complain. Besides, I know that so long as I’m not in fear of imminent death, my personal ER doc was off limits. He always made a point of not treating relatives for ethical reasons. He’s seen it all and heard it all, and I know he doesn’t want to hear from me…unless I’m dying. I didn’t know I actually was.

I had stopped writing for the paper and was busy getting my son ready and packed for college. Our house had been sold, so I was also packing for our move South. Of course, it wasn’t a very good time to get sick, but then again, when is? I would get up, drink coffee, maybe shower, take Tylenol (making my temp go from 103 to 101) and go back to bed. On the second or third day, I went to an Urgent Care. The doctor told me I had a gastroenteritis, even though my stomach was fine. It was my head. I dragged myself through a mall to purchase last minute college stuff. One day I went to an orchid greenhouse with Bob, thinking the flowers would cheer me up. In the hothouse, I truly felt my head would split open.

Then, still a news junkie and finding myself in front of a muted TV, I could not read the news crawl on the bottom of CNN. The headache, the fever, fine, but not reading the news was the last straw. I had great eyesight, but I looked in the mirror and it looked as if 2 giant red stop signs were peering back at me. I decided even though things were blurry, I needed to get to an eye doctor right away. It was just a couple of miles up River Road. First clue, we lived in the priciest swamp around, Rumson, NJ. Between 2 rivers and home to abundant wildlife and waterfowl. In fact, people had been finding dead black birds all around town…that was the second clue.

The ophthalmologist’s Red Bank office was empty. His staff insisted on my paying one hundred dollars up-front, since they didn’t participate with my insurance. I’m not sure how I even drove there, I was too sick to argue, I hadn’t been eating, it actually hurt to eat. Later I thought, this is the best diet plan ever – I lost 15 pounds in one week. This “doctor” didn’t even do a visual acuity check, he told me to go home and “wash your hands.” His diagnosis – conjunctivitis! Finally, almost a week to the day from that first headache, the next day Bob was off and I stood in front of him and gave him the whole story. He took one look at my eyes and brought me to another Ophthalmologist with a capital “O” my saviour, Dr MacDonald of Shrewsbury, NJ.

I was one of the first in a string of people infected with this virus, via a mosquito, that produces encephalitis in a lucky few, 1 out of 150. I was that mom moving her son into his College of NJ dorm while simultaneously putting steroid drops in my eyes every hour. I was lucky I only lost a part of my peripheral vision. I’m writing this to let you know that even with a doctor in the family, I wasn’t treated well by the health community. It’s your health and you need to own it. I spent a week suffering, and that was my mistake, So here is the CDC fact sheet on this mosquito-born illness, West Nile,
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/wnv_factsheet.htm which ends with:

“If you find a dead bird.” And if you live in Texas, Mississippi or Oklahoma, or near a river anywhere where mosquitoes like to bite at dusk and dawn, take precautions please!