I would like to start this post by thanking all of you for the support you have shown me and my family through this very long and frightening weekend. Your prayers, positive thoughts and concern over my son's condition meant more to us than I can express. It kinda sucks that I can talk a blue streak about virtually nothing, but had to start this post a dozen times to thank all of you. I just can't find adequate words. Ya'll are the best people I have ever known, and you mean the world to me.

It took the better part of two and a half days----and every test the hospital could do----to find out that he had viral encephalitis.
He could not tell them how he was feeling when the ambulance picked him up. He couldn't even tell them his name. All he could say was "I can't get it straight." He couldn't walk, and was in and out of consciousness.
They told me he "climbed the walls" in ICU when they tried to draw blood and insert a catheter. They had to restrain him with wrist restraints and a sheet tied to the bed to hold his chest down. He was "combative" and "agitated". And he used every dirty word he knew. This earned him another round of sedatives. He had had three at this point. He would thrash around and pull at his restraints and beg to be turned loose.

And none of that is the son I know.

Sometimes being a mother hurts like all Hell.

Nothing showed up in his bloodwork.
His white cell count didn't indicate any infection.
None of the scans or x-rays showed anything, and they did 'em ALL.
No drugs were found in his system.

They told me they had no idea what was wrong. That scared me stupid. But they decided to do a lumbar puncture, and they found the encephalitis. He went in on Thursday, and we found out Sunday morning.

Youngest looked it up on the internet, and as bad as it was for my son, it could have been so much worse.

And how do you get viral encephalitis? Glad you asked! This is Need-To-Know stuff.

According to the doctor, in this part of the country, the primary cause is mosquito bites. One mosquito knocked him on his butt. He has headaches, and he's weak. He's still not clear-headed, and he cannot remember much about the last three or four days. After watching what it did to Son I can tell you that this is nothing to play with. Do all you can to avoid mosquito bites. Check your property for standing water and dump it. Please spray your kids with repellant when they go outside. Spray the bushes around your yard with insecticide. Whatever it takes.

Damn a mosquito.