Carol Peterson, Canada

This story ran on nwitimes.com on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 12:35 AM CDT

Dealing with West Nile
BY OLIVIA CLARKE
oclarke@nwitimes.com
219.933.4078

At first Carol Peterson was just a little light-headed.

But that light-headedness turned into dizziness paired with a headache.

She went to the doctor in mid-August and was given several tests and some medication to combat the vertigo. She went back several days later to have blood work done. She was admitted to the hospital Aug. 21 because her conditions worsened.

A few days later she learned she had the West Nile virus, a potentially serious illness that is typically contracted through mosquitoes that become infected when they feed on infected birds.

State health officials announced last Thursday that a Hammond resident died from West Nile virus. As of last Thursday, there were nine reported human cases across the state, and last year there were 11 human cases and one death caused by the virus.

Peterson spent about 2 1/2 weeks in the hospital. Her husband, Michael, said she also developed encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the brain that is typically caused by a viral infection.

She doesn't remember much from the first week, but family and friends who visited said whenever she opened her eyes they fluttered and jumped around. She spent the week with her eyes mostly closed because of the dizziness.

Doctors told her there was no specific drug therapy for the virus, but one injection drug could work. But nothing changed after she took the drug for three days. Many people feel badly for a couple of days and then get better, she said. West Nile sometimes goes undetected or people do not realize they have it, she said.

"They basically told me everybody reacts differently to it," said the 48-year-old Munster resident, who is a speech therapist. "I was the lucky 1 percent that actually gets sick. I was so dizzy it made me very nauseous. It was like being severely car sick all the time, but only worse."

She eventually moved to the rehabilitation section of the hospital. She said she was in pretty good shape before she got West Nile, but she had to relearn how to walk using a walker. She would walk around the room one time and be worn out, she said.

"I couldn't get out of bed by myself," Peterson said. "Just being dependent on other people was kind of strange. I never got the feeling from doctors or family members that I was at real risk of not making it. I guess I was just an optimist."

Her therapist told her she was making progress and released her Monday. But she must still do exercises at home to control her dizziness.

She said she will know more at her next doctor's appointment in a couple of weeks. She said she still moves slowly and can't drive. Working on the computer can make her dizzy, she said.

"I really don't know where I got it," she said. "I don't think you can be paranoid about a mosquito getting you. ... I don't remember having mosquito bites. You can be careful, but you can't be paranoid."

For the last week and a half she has tried to give herself little projects to do around the house. On Monday she put photos in albums.

Her doctor told her to look at her progress from week to week, not day to day. She said she received a lot of support from friends and family. People took turns staying with her when she came home from the hospital, she said.

Michael Peterson said he is thankful for all the work the hospital did and is thankful for how understanding his employer, Strack & Van Til in Merrillville, was about what his wife was going through.

The doctors expect his wife to make a full recovery, he said. While she seems to be done with the West Nile virus, she's left with the vertigo, he said.

"I've never seen her that ill," he said. "Ever since she graduated college and became a speech therapist she's dealt with children and been around illness. She's had nothing more than a cold her whole life. To see her in that kind of state was scary. To see her totally incapacitated, she couldn't even pick up her head, was a scary experience."