ADAMS TWP - Robin Shemela wants others to know that watering the shrubbery can lead to a nightmarish medical odyssey.

Shemela, who is feeling a little stronger each day, regularly tends to the dozens of outdoor plants, flowers and shrubs adorning her secluded home off Valencia Road. One day, she was puzzled to discover that two of her toes appeared to sport a rash resembling a severe sunburn.

Five days later, Shemela arose feeling achy and stiff, as if she were getting the flu. Treating herself at home with rest and fluids, Shemela developed a blinding migraine headache accompanied by severe pain shooting down her neck.

Her doctor told her it was a virus and administered a shot for the migraine before advising her to go home, lie down and ride it out. She called her doctor back two hours after arriving home, when her temperature soared from 99.4 to 105.

"The doctor said 'Let me call an ambulance for you - something is very wrong,'" recalled the petite and attractive grandmother.

Emergency personnel at Sewickley Valley Hospital performed a spinal tap, administered fever-reducing medication, and sent Shemela home.

Two days later, Shemela, who was even more ill, noticed she was having trouble speaking and the sunburn-like rash on her toes had turned into a painful, swollen, purple foot.

Another trip to the emergency room necessitated yet another spinal tap, which, like the first, came back negative. The doctor informed Shemela her speech problem was Bell's palsy, a neurological condition in which half the nerves of the face are affected, causing the features on that half to become paralyzed.

Shemela was horrified to see the effects in the mirror, which included the inability to close her temporarily blinded left eye.

Doctors admitted Shemela to the hospital, where she spent four harrowing days in and out of consciousness due to her mystery illness and strong pain medication, plus a severe allergic reaction to a penicillin-based antibiotic. Testing included a blood test for Lyme disease, which came back negative.

As a result of her husband's efforts on her behalf, Shemela moved to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. She was placed in isolation because her lungs were halfway full of fluid and her chest cavity was also filling fast.

The treatment for this condition, known as pleural effusion, was to tap the fluid off by inserting a tube the size of a straw into her back.

Other symptoms included liver problems and jaundice in addition to the facial palsy, severe headache and semi-consciousness. Shemela said at one point, 12 consecutive vials of blood were drawn from her arm.

Finally, doctors at Allegheny General administered another Lyme disease test, which returned a positive result. A third test for the disease also came back positive.

Doctors told Shemela's family the deer tick that infected Shemela attached itself to her toe, causing the sunburn rash and subsequent swelling, discoloration and pain in her foot.

After four days of antibiotic therapy to combat the Lyme disease, Shemela returned home in a severely weakened state.

"After two weeks, I could barely make it from the couch to the bed," said Shemela on Tuesday. "I was still so weak and so sick."

Shemela has been home from the hospital for three weeks. While she is still very easily fatigued and finds visits to the doctor's office exhausting, she is energized by her need to make Butler County residents aware of the danger proffered by an insect the size of a poppy seed.

"I had no idea Lyme disease was such a problem in Butler County," said Shemela. "Be aware that it is prevalent here and protect yourself and your kids."

Shemela said state Department of Health officials told her deer ticks, which also attach themselves to the prevalent white-footed mouse, wait for a host in grassy areas or near shrubbery that serves as a food source for deer.

She figures the tick that attached itself to her toe lurked in the shrubbery she regularly waters while wearing sandals or in the blueberry patch in Butler where she picked fruit prior to her ordeal.

Shemela said her research on the illness has revealed that while most people who contract Lyme disease do not have symptoms as severe as hers, it can attack the heart or cause lifelong auto-immune problems for undiagnosed children.

She said because the tick attached itself to her toe, she did not get the telltale "bull's-eye" rash associated with Lyme disease.

Shemela said while state Department of Health officials promote ways to recognize and avoid the tiny ticks, she feels strongly about reducing the white-tailed deer population in Pennsylvania.

"Lengthen the hunting season," said Shemela, who frequently sees deer cavorting in the field behind her home. "Do whatever it takes to cut down on the deer population."

Richard McGarvey, a state Department of Health spokesperson, said about 1,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported to the state per year, and that number seems to increase each year.

McGarvey said deer ticks don't jump on their host, rather, they lie in wait in grassy areas, shrubbery or low-lying vegetation. He said wearing light-colored clothing will allow outdoorsy types to see the tiny insect. The health department also advises wearing hiking boots and long socks and/or wear insect repellent containing the ingredient DEET.

He said those who have been in shrubbery or walking in grass should perform a tick check, which involves inspecting the underarms, hairline, groin and toes. Should a tick be found, it should be pulled off by the base with tweezers and destroyed. McGarvey said a deer tick cannot infect a human with Lyme disease within the first six hours of attachment, so inspecting for the ticks immediately once indoors in imperative.

While Butler County has nowhere near the number of Lyme disease cases of eastern counties, Shemela was told Butler is a "hot" county. The first cases of Lyme disease here were reported in 1989, when 16 cases occurred. The highest number of cases that year, at 148, occurred in Montgomery County near Philadelphia.

In 2003, Butler County reported 37 cases. The highest number in 2003 came in from Chester County, at 762.

Whatever the numbers, Shemela is determined to make people aware of the life-altering and painful changes a teeny tick can inflict on anyone in Butler County.

"I just don't want anyone else to go through this," said Shemela. "It has been a terrible thing."

For more information on Lyme disease, go to www.health.state.pa.us, click on "Health Topics A-Z" on the right, then on "Lyme Disease."