In 1999 West Nile Virus was found in a large bird at the Bronx Zoo. It had migrated from the Nile river basin. After several years it started spreading and affected  mostly horses, but luckily there was a vaccine for them. However, in 2003 Colorado had the first known epidemic of the Virus that was effecting humans. It killed over 80 people. It was spread from the large birds that traveled through CO in the migratory bird path. The birds were stung by mosquitoes and the birds died, the mosquitos would then sting humans ( and other mammals.)

I lived in CO with my husband and two adopted children. We lived at a high elevation and because of the breeze did not have mosquitos at our home. One weekend we went to a pizza party in a park that had a pond. I was never bothered by mosquitos so I gave no thought to being stung. Within a week my husband said I was complaining of feeling like I had the flu and several days later I was leaning on the wall to walk. (I have no memory of any of this.) He made me get in the car and he took me to the emergency room. When we arrived in the ER they took my blood pressure and immediately told my husband that I had to be admitted to the ICU that my blood pressure was almost bottomed out. During the first exam they could not find a mosquito bite on my body. They started shot-gunning me with every antibiotic available since they didn't know the cause of my illness.  My husband said at one time I had 18 bags of fluid being administered by IV. Five days after I was admitted I had a ruptured bowel and had to have immediate emergency surgery. After that I was in a coma for three weeks. During that time they did a spinal tap to get a positive diagnosis. The fluid was sent to the Mayo Clinic and it came back positive for West Nile. When I came out of the coma I was paralyzed except for my eyes, mouth and finger tips. I was on a ventilator so I couldn't talk and I hurt unbearably. Luckily one nurse could sometimes read my lips. During the coma I had encephalitis and meningitis. The doctors told my husband many times to make funeral plans because I had a very low chance of surviving. There were seven patients including myself in that hospital's ICU with WNV during that time and I was the only one to survive. What a wake up call! Physical and occupational therapy worked with me every day trying to wake my body up. West Nile kills the nerve endings which in turn causes the muscles to atrophy. After seven weeks I was transferred into a room. I was having constant panic attacks especially while they were trying to wean me from the ventilator. I could remember nothing about my time in the coma and I know my husband got tired of me asking what all happened during that time but I could not remember anything and had a terrible time retaining anything he told me.

While the therapists were working with me after I was in a room they were having a very hard time with both shoulders doing range of motion plus it was very, very painful for me. They finally had an orthopedic physician check my shoulders out and to add to my problems both of my shoulders were frozen. They scheduled me for manipulation surgery on both shoulders. I thought I had experienced pain before but this was the worst pain ever. After surgery therapists had to do range of motion every three hours for many days to keep them from developing the scar tissue again. One good thing I had all my feeling in my body, so I didn't to worry about pressure sores as long as the aides moved me from side to side.

Luckily some of the nerve ending started to regenerate and I gained some movement back but most of the muscles were gone. I couldn't feed myself, so I quickly found out who my best friends were -- basically, whoever showed up at mealtime and didn't mind feeding me.  

After almost six months I was released from the hospital to go home. Our church members built a ramp from the driveway to the back door. My husband had a hospital bed delivered and set up in our living room and that floor of the house became where I lived. I was in a power chair because I did not have enough strength in my shoulders to use a manual chair. I had a person staying 24/7 since I could not do anything on my own. Home health came 3 times a week and I tried to do as much exercise on my own. After there time ran out a very good friend who was a retired nurse and a neighbor came almost every day to help me. I worked very hard during that time but still had a lot of depression as well as panic attacks. Would I ever have a "normal" life?

I have always been a very strong, independent person and I'm sure that it was my faith and family support that gave me the strength to survive this nightmare. I was originally from Tennessee and all of my family lived there. Two years after coming home from the hospital and being away from my parents, adult children and grandchildren I convinced my husband that we needed to move back to TN. I needed the emotional support to continue my journey to recovery. Before WNV I had so many things I was very involved in -- horseback riding, gardening and dancing. Oh, how I missed all of that as well as my family.

In 2006 we moved back to TN near all of my family. What a wonderful feeling that was. I started in a neurological therapy group. WNV was similar to Post polio syndrome so that was the logical place for me to start. Tennessee had a couple of cases of WNV but not enough to have a separate therapy group. We bought a house and had it remodeled to be handicapped accessible. Life was getting better, although I was still feeling down most of the time. I went through our location college extension service and became a Master Gardener. I would work in my flower beds hanging from my seat belt in my power chair. I must admit my yard was beautiful and I got so much satisfaction from that. Around this time I visited my neurologist and had an EMG done. This test checks the nerves to see if they have regenerated. Unfortunately, none of my hip nerves, one knee and one ankle had not regenerated. I also have very low muscle use and almost no strength in my right shoulder but more use in my left. So I will always be in a power chair but I have adapted and can do most things that I want but I'm sure I do it a little different than most other people. I have worked very hard on my core body strength and feel very comfortable with my balance.

In 2011 my 39 year old daughter was diagnosed with a very rare type of cancer. It was melanoma but was not evident on the outside of her body. She had never used a tanning bed and visited the dermatologist every year. She had many tumors in her body. I told her not to ever give up that a cure might become available the next day. I took her to every doctor appointment and every chemo treatment but after one year and one week my baby daughter passed. How could I go on without my only birth daughter? We were so close. As I thought back to my time in the hospital with WNV I know the Lord knew my work was not done and that I needed to be with Lorri, he saved me to help her. She had two young teenagers and their dad has done an awesome job and they are doing very well. I am very close to both of Lorri's children as I am all of my grandchildren.

I have always been a baby lover so I started working with a Christian adoption agency taking care of the babies if there were a glitch in them going to their adoptive family. That has been quite rewarding. I stay in touch with all my babies and their adoptive families. I'm another Nana as far as they know.

To get back to horseback riding I started therapeutic horseback riding. That was very satisfying to smell, touch and ride the horses, but I had ridden for years and I couldn't handle being lead on the horse and having side walkers holding my legs. My cousin is a horse trainer in Montana and she told me of a friend of her's that is a paraplegic who has trained his horse to lay down so he can slide into the saddle then he actually ropes from his horse. So that really got me excited to think that I might be able to ride "normally." After searching on line I found an adaptive saddle made for handicapped riders. I have been researching horses and have found the perfect horse. She is just a sweetheart and is called "bomb proof". Additionally, my cousin has offered to fly out and work with the mare and train her for my use. I prefer to use a lift to mount and dismount rather than having my horse lay down. My husband says he can build a lift from parts of my (several) worn out wheelchairs and mount it on the back of a horse trailer. All totaled up I would need $5000 to make my dream come true. For 13 years now I have fought to gain back my loves that I had before WNV -- I have met the gardening goal but this one is the most important to me.  I need your help. Anything that you can donate would be so appreciated. I have a lot of years in front of me .  I am extremely healthy other that the paralyzation and I have no intention of allowing that to stop me with achieving my life-long goals. Please consider everything that has happened to me and that I have overcome and help me meet my goal. Thank you in advance and God bless you.