I HAVE PARVO!

Strange right? First I thought my back ached from loading cases of Girl Scout cookies into the car. As the day went on my back was not the only thing hurting. My neck began to hurt as well as my head, legs, arms and even my wrists. I went to the booth sale with all the cookies and thought I would turn around and just come home. I stayed for an hour and a half because I felt bad that our leader Sheri was thinking she had a post surgery hernia. How could I leave her there when all I had were aches and pains?

The longer I stood there watching the girls sell and giggle, the worse I felt. Sheri kept telling me to leave but I wanted to stay until another mom arrived. I finally thought I was getting the flu about the same time the other mom arrived. Sheri insisted I go, especially since I had chills with two layers of sweaters on.

When I got home, I took my temperature and it was 103 plus. I thought I definitely had the flu. I went to bed under three layers of down and a flannel sheet covering me. The heat was turned way up and I was still shaking. A couple hours of sleep later I managed to come upstairs. My temp was still 103 with Advil in my system. Body aches made it uncomfortable to sleep so I was up until the wee hours while my temperature climbed to 104. My temp and body aches lasted well into the next night.

Saturday night I noticed my leg around my ankle was red. Zoe mentioned I probably had them crossed. My leg was on fire and it didn't go away. I placed a wet cloth on the area with the fan going to try to cool it down, to no avail. In fact, it was spreading. Quietly freaking out, I thought I had figured out what I had. A spider bite. I had a bite a couple days ago right where the redness started so it had to be. By Sunday it had spread even more to my foot and my upper calf. I decided not to go to doc in the box because I had heard several stories about the doctor there who was notorious for misdiagnosing ailments.

Yesterday I went to our doctor. He seemed puzzled at first, saw it as a challenge and looked excited. Not by my leg but the challenge of diagnosing it. Finally he told me I had Parvo virus. I was shocked. "Did I get this from my dog, does my dog have Parvo too?" He said dogs get B12. I said, "This comes from B12? I take B12!" He laughed at my graying, not blond self and said, "No, dogs have Parvo B12 and you didn't get it from your dog." He was quite self satisfied that he had figured it out, much to my disbelief. He told me he could prove it with a blood test. He really wanted to prove it! I asked if he was going to draw my blood or if I had to go to a lab miles away. He said I would have to go to the lab. Like a six year old I said, "I don't want to go to the lab!" and I didn't! He told me it was a virus and the rash would go away in due time, maybe weeks.

On the way home I called my friend Pat and she looked it up and told me it is also called Fifth Disease. Now that I have heard of in humans. I was a little miffed that he didn't tell me that. When I got home I looked it up online of course. Found out it is called Parvo Virus B19. It is usually found in children and nasty when adults get it, like chicken pox is. The doctor told me that a lot of people get it but don't notice a rash, which usually appears on the face of kids. They call it the slapped cheek disease because that is what it looks like. I think both the girls had it when they were little. We also think David may have had it a couple weeks ago when he had similar flu like symptom with a high fever.

Apparently contagious before the rash appears, which would have been at the booth sale. I called a few people to let them know. My friend Amy told me that her daughter Devin had it and she looked really pretty! Well, my leg is not pretty and it is still hot, swollen and red. My fever is gone though, so things are on the mend.