JACKSON TOWNSHIP | Newell Phillips is down from 75-mile trips on his bicycle last summer to just a few steps from his wheelchair today.

But he also is up from paralysis and life on a ventilator a few months ago to shaving himself, feeding himself and dressing himself -- mostly.

With a new mosquito season coming soon to the region, Phillips' experience provides a cautionary tale about West Nile virus.

Phillips, 68, returned home a week ago after eight months in a series of hospitals and rehabilitation facilities in Porter County and across Chicago. With half of that time spent in intensive care, Phillips doesn't even like to think about the cost.

"It had to be well over $1 million," he said, reflecting on the ordeal last week at his Jackson Township home.

"This was scary," said his wife, Marianne. "From day one, I put it in God's hands."

Since retiring from Bethlehem Steel in 1997, Phillips had kept up regular hunting trips to Nebraska and fishing trips to the Florida Keys. When he was home, he would bike to Westville every morning for coffee and the newspaper. Longer excursions would take him to Wheatfield, a six- or seven-hour trip.

Last August, Phillips was enjoying a ride along a Portage bike trail when an insect was blown up his nose. Try as he might, he couldn't get it out.

When it came out on its own several days later, it was clearly a mosquito, but unlike any he'd ever seen before, Phillips said. It had a striped body, like a honey bee.

"This could be bad news," he briefly thought to himself, but then put the incident out of his mind.

Within a week he started experiencing flu-like symptoms of fever and fatigue, causing him to fall a few times. Phillips contacted his doctor, but also kept a commitment to train a friend's dog while house-sitting for several days. Near the end of that time, Phillips fell and lost so much muscle strength that he was not able to get to the phone. His wife thought her unanswered calls meant he was outside with the dog. When the friend returned home the next day, he found Phillips unconscious.

Thus began an odyssey of fighting back against the debilitation of West Nile. The journey has included four months hooked to a ventilator, an array of tubes in his mouth and other orifices, four cases of pneumonia, a collapsed lung, several "code blue" emergencies and an $18,000 helicopter transport from one hospital to another.

And it could have been worse.

"Most people die," Marianne Phillips said. "They're calling him their miracle patient."

Now Phillips has therapy three days a week to regain the strength in his legs and the use of his hands and upper body. He can't yet raise his arms high enough to put on a shirt or comb his hair. He can eat pie, but cutting through the crust can be tough.

Reflecting on the upheaval to her own life, Marianne Phillips said, "I haven't done much of anything for eight months."

It's a modest understatement, considering she commuted daily to visit her husband in the hospital, first by car, then by the South Shore.

Marianne Phillips said she never gave a second thought to West Nile before her husband got sick. Now, she thinks everyone should have it on their radar screen.

"People should be aware what a dreadful thing it is," she said.

Although Newell Phillips can't be sure the inhaled bug was the culprit, he doesn't recall any bites about that time that may have transmitted the disease.

Now, he has been told to expect a two-year convalescence. He's hoping to recover sooner, but will keep working at it even if it takes longer.

"If I don't recover in five years, I'll try to recover in 10 years," he said. "I have high expectations. I hope to be back on my bike -- if I'm not too old. At worst, I'll get a three-wheeler."

His biggest goal, he said, is get back to where he left off: his 75-mile rides to Wheatfield.