by Adam Ghassemi
ASHLAND CITY, Tenn. – The start to the summer of 2012 is still blurry for Adrian Johnson.
"You don't know anything. I mean, you don't remember anything," she said Thursday.
Johnson is healthy and back at work today, but after spending Memorial Day with friends swimming in a pool near the Cumberland River she started feeling weird. "It seemed like I had a headache," she said.
She says the next day she got off and went home. A few hours later her husband found her basically paralyzed.
"Couldn't walk or talk," she explained.
Her husband, Ashland City Mayor Rick Johnson, thought it was a stroke. After she spent four days in the ICU, unable to recognize her own children, a doctor finally gave them the answer.
"We have found out that you have West Nile," Johnson recalled.
The Johnsons will never be sure where it happened, but believe a mosquito bite is likely how Adrian contracted the virus.
Johnson had to undergo physical and speech therapy, but somehow made a full recovery.
"It just wasn't my time. That's the way I look at it and just thankful for every day," she went on to say. "The one mosquito bite that you think is just a mosquito bite might not be."
Johnson says she has been bitten by mosquitos and ticks her whole life and has never been serious about wearing bug repellent until now.
Health officials say using repellent and getting rid of standing water can keep the mosquito population under control.
The Center for Disease Control says so far they've seen nearly 2,000 cases of West Nile. That's more than they've ever seen since it was first detected in the U.S. in 1999. So far 87 people have died from West Nile this year alone.
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