Ah, well... my mom is OK. She was in the hospital for ten days. The doctors couldn't figure out what was causing her to be sick, so after they stabilized her, they sent her home with an IV shunt thingie stuck in her hand so she could continue to give herself megadoses of antibiotics for another seven days. But we now now what it is... West Nile!

My mom found out on Tuesday, the 19th, and now she's part of the West Nile research study with her blood at the CDC! Mom told me that the North Dakota Health Department called her and asked, "Have you been bitten by any misquitoes?" --- not the brightest people in the world running around trying to save us since the disease is only contracted through misquitoes!

So, mom is home slowly regaining strength, and the rest of us are breathing a little easier. No plague named after us ;)

For more on the West Nile virus, check out CDC: West Nile numbers surpass 700.