Early that afternoon, the daycare called and said my daughter had a fever and I had to come get her. I drove to daycare and as I was sitting on the floor putting her shoes on her my right side went totally numb. I literally dragged myself out to my van and drove home. Shortly after that I suddenly lost my ability to talk. I knew I had to call for help but since I couldn't talk I went upstairs and logged on the my computer at work and sent an e-mail to 3 of my friend there telling them I needed help. It took me about 30 minutes to write the six words as I couldn't think straight and couldn't remember their last names to address the message. As soon as I sent it my phone rang and it was one of my friends asking if I was all right. All I could do was cry and get the word "no" out. They sent an ambulance to get me. I couldn't tell the paramedics what was wrong with me. At the ER they did a CT scan and I told them I thought I had a migraine headache. They said I was probably right and gave me a shot that made the head pain go away but I still couldn't talk well. They sent me home and told me to see my primary physician the next day.

Tuesday I woke up again with severe head pain and called to make an appointment with my doctor. He couldn't see me until 4 pm and when I did get there I had to lay on the chairs in the waiting room and run to the bathroom twice during the exam to vomit. He also thought migraine and gave me two prescriptions and sent me home. I took the pills but nothing was getting better.

Wednesday came and I was still in severe pain and confined to the couch. I somehow managed (barely) to care for my three children. On Thursday, I was again bedridden with pain. In the afternoon my son came running home from the mall saying someone had stolen his bike. I got in the van and was chasing around town trying to find it but had to go back home because I was in so much pain. Shortly after that I began to really get agitated. I knew it was time to go get the kids at daycare and I handed the car keys to my 12 year old and told him to go get them and started screaming at him until he began to cry.

At that same time, my daycare called and asked if I was going to pick up my kids and I was incoherent and demanded that they put my 5 yr old on the phone. When she got on I told her that "mommy needs help" and she told the daycare worker and she called an ambulance. At about the same time my son called my best friend and told her there was something wrong with his mom and her husband also called for an ambulance as she jumped in her car to come to my house. I then went out onto the back porch and told my neighbor "there is something wrong with me - I can't wake up". I sat down on the porch and that is the last thing I remember as I became catatonic.

At the hospital, I couldn't communicate and was talking in gibberish. They said I was "highly agitated" and would swing at anyone who touched me. They did blood tests and a drug test to make sure I wasn't on a "bad trip". My friends told them that there was something desperately wrong with me and that I wasn't acting normal. I managed to rip out both IV's they had in my arms while they were doing a spinal tap. My friends called my mom in Florida and the doctors told them to tell her to get on the first plane she could to come to MN. I remember coming to about 10 pm and my dad was holding my hand and I said "Hi Dad". Then I was out again until morning.

The next morning I awoke in ICU and they transferred me to a bed in the neuroscience wing. The Centers for Disease control doctors were there as well. They told me I had viral encephalitis - something I had never heard of. My mother flew in that afternoon and told care of my children while I was in the hospital.

I was in the hospital for about a week and it was the weirdest time of my life. I had many hallucinations and would say really strange things. I constantly had a sense that I was in a different room as the scenery kept changing in my mind. I remember calling the nurse in one night to tell her that a man dressed up as a Minnesota Viking was hiding in my room. The worst feeling was knowing that I was acting so strange and not being able to stop it.

The head pain was really bad and so they did a "blood patch" to the site of the spinal tap. Basically they take blood out of your arms (a lot of it!) and inject it at the site of the tap to seal up the leaking spinal fluid.

I went home after a week and struggled with severe headaches about every other night. I had to return to the doctor's office once for an injection for the pain and another time to get steroids. The pain and vomiting continued for about 4-5 weeks and I thought I was never going to recover. In addition, I couldn't do the simplest things. I couldn't draw a map to help my mother get around town, I couldn't type at the computer or play the piano, I had trouble talking at times and making sense with my words. I couldn't look up a telephone number in the phone book.

These side affects REALLY frightened me the most. I didn't know if I would be like that forever and I knew I needed to be able to work to support my family and I really needed to be able to take care of my children. I prayed a lot and cried a lot and just waited it out. Slowly I regained all my facilities but it was a 10-week recovery and about 3-4 full months before I was 100% again.