Richard all better

By mid-week he was feeling pretty good, but still a little weak.  We went to a movie at the Lagoon on Wednesday and had to walk about 1/4 mile from parking.  A couple of days earlier  that would have been too much, but to his surprise it was no problem.  The rash was the last symptom to disappear.  It faded very gradually for a few days.  This morning it is completely gone.  So he was sick for almost exactly a week, but not really very sick.  The most dramatic symptom was the rash; the most debilitating was the fatigue.

He never did see a doctor.  I talked him into calling his clinic (the Park Nicollet Blaisdell/Franklin one) on Tuesday, just to see if they were interested in diagnosing a case of West Nile for the records.  They weren't especially.  The nurse was interested in the rash and thought that some of the doctors :might like to see it," but it didn't sound like anyone would even bother to do a blood test if he went in.  And yes, there is a simple blood test for this thing.  According to the most recent Strib article, 10 of the 32 diagnosed cases so far in Minnesota were detected in blood donors that had no symptoms. Other than that, I guess the only way this disease is being tracked is in the tiny minority of people that get sick enough to be hospitalized.  Such is the state of epidemiology in the most medically advanced country on earth. 

There was a dead sparrow on our front steps on Thursday morning.