When I said good bye to SD in July, I assumed I was saying good bye to the house I grew up in for good. Uh-huh, not so. Turns out I went back in less than a month.
Just a few days after school started, my mom was sent to the hospital. No doctor likes to see a 104.6 degree temperature, especially when accompanied by tremors, confusion, the inability to walk alone, etc. As my mom slept, we prayed and prayed and prayed that they could figure out what was going on and that she would recover. After a few days of supportive care (keeping the temp down, IVs in, close monitoring), they figured she was having gallbladder issues. The surgeon came to consult with my dad, who felt very strongly that it was NOT gallbladder issues, but something else entirely.
My dad's diagnosis was confirmed a few days later when the blood work came back positive for neuro-invasive West Nile Virus. Hmmm, guess he should have been a doctor. My mom was the 1 in 150 people who get the Virus to get it bad. Though it was nice to get a confirmed diagnosis, it wasn't as nice to hear that it had caused encephalitis and that it could take up to a year to feel 100% back to normal.
My sisters and I took turns flying out to SD to help out in the recovery process. By the time I got there, mom was doing better and could even take short walks before having to rest again. But sacrament meeting wiped her out and she took a 2 hour nap when we got home. As we all know, church can be exhausting:)
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