"I think the walking and climbing I do on the job has helped me heal"--great news!

West Nile victim finding balance

By LYNN LOFTON
SUN HERALD
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/news/local/11880775.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

West Nile victim back at work and doing well

GAUTIER - It's been three years since Bob Conley was stricken with West Nile virus. Although the 49-year-old is back on the job as a ship-fitting supervisor at Northrop Grumman, he says he has not regained the muscle tone and strength he had prior to the illness.

"I most likely will never get the muscle tone and strength back," he said, "but I'm still trucking along like always."

The debilitating virus also left Conley with weakness on his body's right side and a smaller left right arm and leg.

"It affects everyone differently," he said. "I had a paralysis like polio on the right side and don't remember anything that happened for about a week after I got sick. It was like I was in a coma."

Conley weighed about 165 pounds and lost almost 40 pounds in one week.

He was on a two-day fishing trip in Ocean Springs in early July 2002 when a mosquito carrying the West Nile virus bit him. He was released from the hospital in late August 2002 and went through weeks of intense outpatient physical therapy. He returned to work in late October 2002.

"The doctors told me it would take a long time to get back to work but I talked them into letting me go back sooner, and I think that helped me get better faster," Conley said. "I have always been active and I think the walking and climbing I do on the job has helped me heal."

He was back at work awhile before he had enough nerve to climb the multitude of ship stairs and sometimes he pays for overexerting himself.

"At first I got tired but now I can stay up and work for 12 or 14 hours," he said. "But I wake up with muscle soreness if I overdo it."

His wife, Sandi, who has kept a scrapbook of the press coverage of her husband's illness, said, "If I have a honey-do list around the house, he has no trouble with it."

Conley has worked at Northrop Grumman for 19 years and says he hasn't gone fishing since that fateful day because he hasn't had time. However, when he does go again, he says he'll be sure to wear mosquito repellent.


http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/news/local/11880775.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© 2005 The Sun Herald and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.sunherald.com