OLATHE, Kan. — Dina Forest flips through a growing pile of medical test results, looking for the one that changed her husband’s life. It’s the one that said he has West Nile Virus.
“I thought that it had been ruled out a long time ago,” Dina Forest explains.
After seeing a story on FOX 4 about another man with West Nile, Dina decided to double check with the doctor that Mike had been tested. The answer was no.
“Some of the things that he’s facing now could have been prevented if we would have found something out a long time ago,” Forest explained.
Since we saw him in July, “He’s gotten worse. Headaches are constant now every day, 24 hours a day,” she said.
Mike hasn’t been able to work consistently for more than a year, at times he can barely even walk. A new bedroom’s even been built for Mike so that he doesn’t have to use the stairs.
“It’s taken, taken my husband away from me, my son’s father,” Forest said of the illness.
Doctors here say Mike may have something else complicating his West Nile. The Forest family’s one hope now is a trip to the Mayo Clinic to find out how to make Mike better.
“I don’t want to see him hurt anymore. He hurts,” she said emotionally.
Dina often reflects on the last time she saw her husband as his normal self- the day he went to Joplin.
“He was just so proud and I was proud of him!” she beams. “I just remember that smile of- ‘I’m going to Joplin!'”
Doctors believe that volunteer trip to Joplin was where Mike got sick.
“He still says today he’d do it again, and I kick him and say no you won’t!” Forest smiled.
It was a selfless deed that’s changed the life of this family possibly forever.
“I wouldn’t wish it upon anybody. It’s tough,” Mike Forest said.
After a pipe burst and flooded their house, the Forest family was forced to move into a hotel for awhile. Phoenix Restoration has donated much of the work and money to the family to help out. Dina says all she wants now is prayers.
To find out more about how you can help the Forest family, click this link.
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