Joshua’s Story

Site created on September 7, 2023

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. On Thursday August 31 Joshua started to feel ill. He spent the next couple of days with flu like symptoms. On Sat, the symptoms were bad enough to have him go to urgent care. Joshua’s friend took him to urgent care. From there, they sent him by medical transport to Methodist Hospital ER. After multiple tests and IV fluids, Josh seemed better and they sent him home. Later that evening he spiked a very high fever and his parents hurried him to the ER at Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater. In the ER at Lakeview, Joshua had a spinal tap.  From this CSF (cerebral spinal fluid) and blood, they ran a myriad of lab tests, including the West Nile Virus lab test (which takes 5-7 days to get results).  During his hospital stay, he continued to have flu like symptoms that were severe. Joshua also seemed disoriented, slow to process things and mental tiredness. Gradually, Joshua’s flu like symptoms started to improve, but his tiredness and neurological symptoms continued to persist and progress to more serious CNS symptoms. Due to his progressing symptoms and testing negative for many viruses and illnesses, Joshua got transferred to Regions hospital.  The next day, his West Nile Virus results finally came back!  He was positive for West Nile virus in his CSF and his blood serum.  The infectious disease doctor informed us it is rare to get such a conclusive diagnosis for West Nile.  (Because we were able to get the labs and spinal tap early in the disease, we have a quite conclusive diagnosis.)  Though Joshua's flu like symptoms have decreased the virus is causing a lot of encephalopathy (inflammation of the brain at the cell level).  Josh and his family sure appreciate all your love and prayers for a full recovery!

Newest Update

October 23, 2023

Journal entry by Rebekah Mihm —

We are so thankful that Josh continues to improve!

He has been staying at his apartment for extended weekends and has loved getting back to his routine as much as possible. He got cleared by his occupational therapist to start back at work part-time, beginning tomorrow! 🙌  
Read More of the journal titled "October 23, 2023"
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