Well since my last post from when I was still in Alaska sooooo, it's been...a while. I was meant to go to California which I had a job and possible place to stay but everything fell through, which happen to be a blessing in disguise. Last September 2017, I couldn't walk for a month and a half due to my sacroiliac joint or SI Joint and a bulging disc, (I'll get to that in a later post.)
So I'm back in the desert and not taking for granted the ability to walk, I wanted to get healthy again. I've done triathlons and a marathon so I knew what my body was capable of and signed up for a 10k race, which I ran with a 14 min mile, not bad from someone who hadn't ran in years. I also tried to go hiking here in Arizona. Main issue is that there's not a lot of shade in the desert. Bear would walk in my shadow because well, there's NO SHADE! However on an incline I was worried I would slip on the gravel and smoosh my Baby Bear...so I carried her. She's spoiled.
This was the mountain we hiked and the 10k I ran around the same time.
As a result in trying to get healthy and in shape, the weeks after I notice my majors joints where really hurting, my ankles, knees, hips, elbows, wrists and fingers. It was to the point when I would sit on the floor I couldn't use my wrists to push myself up because it was so painful to put any sort of pressure that I would use my fore arm to push myself up. It took effort to get up the stairs in my house, I'm getting older but I didn't think I was going to jump to an 80 year old body?! No offense, 80 year old people. Next, I had these sores, almost looks like hives, on my legs and they were the size of quarters. They didn't itch but they were painful to the touch. I once had a staph infection, (I'll get to that in a later post, too) and I thought maybe it was associated with the MRSA since it was on my lower legs. Last, I did have a weird dry cough that eventually went away but I had bad headaches and just all around being tired. When I did the "health math" I knew something was definitely wrong because I had been more active, eating better and taking vitamins. I thought I was averaging 7 - 8 hours of sleep but my mom said I was sleeping more like 10 to 11 hours. I have stress but it wasn't enough to cause all these ailments.
I went to the doctor and of course there are lots of questions from what did you eat to have you traveled outside the country and I'm still waiting for the "Have you been abducted by Aliens?"questions.
After answering all the questions, the first diagnosis was my cholesterol medication. Apparently the side effects maybe some of the issues I was having. It was new for me to take and so I was told to go off of it...done! But the part that was concerning to me was the joint pain. Arthritis does run in the family including rheumatoid arthritis. So I was referred to a RA Doctor. In the meantime, take it easy, nothing strenuous including running and, of course, not taking the cholesterol meds. So basically reverting back to before I was trying to get healthy. UGH!
Two weeks later I had my appointment with the RA Doctor. The part that I did like was he said "You've probably been asked a million questions so forgive me if I ask some of the same." It put me at ease because yeah, repeating yourself isn't fun but do what you have to do to get better. As we proceeded, he's asking not all the same questions, more like "Have you been outside a lot lately?" Yes. "How long ago was that?" A month or so. "When did you notice the first symptoms?" And I asked if I could look at my phone. On Instagram I had taken a picture and posted it when I noticed the lumps on my legs, thank goodness we basically diary our lives on social media to carbon date everything but also help jog our memory. I also took photos of my legs at the time. When I saw the doctor most of the lumps weren't swollen and red but not completely gone but they did turned into bruises. As he was putting my time line together, he's looking something up on the computer and he goes, "did you lumps look like this?" YES! It's called Erythema Nodosum. YAY! Okay, now how do I get rid of it? I wear a lot of shorts!
Then the magic words come out of his mouth, "Have you heard of Coccidioidomycosis or Valley Fever?" Could just said Valley Fever but whatever and yes. Dammit.
For those who don't know, basically you breath in the fungi spores and it gets in your lungs hence making you sick. More flu like symptoms, cough, fever, exhaustion, and joint pain from a couple of weeks to months depending on the severity. It's not contagious so you can't get it other than breathing it in and if you live in the south west. I've heard of people staying home for weeks to get better even going on short term disability.There is no cure and no vaccine and it's on the rise.
He continued to explain why he thought it would be Valley Fever and not the cholesterol theory which would make my muscles sore not my joints. But to be sure, I needed to have labs done however if I had previously had it, it wouldn't show up on the test but it doesn't mean I didn't have it. Off I went to the labs and they drew 6 tubes of blood but it could take up to 2 weeks for the results to come back.
On April 11, 2017 my doctor said that out of the 6 vials of blood taken from me, all of my labs came back positive with Valley Fever. In the meantime he put me on an anti fungal medication that I have to take twice a day, not operate heavy machinery, for 2 months. On top of which labs once a month to make sure the medication doesn't affect my liver.
Well I'm glad I was diagnosed correctly so I can get on the road to recovery. I don't know how long before I'm feeling better but I do know why people stay home. Unfortunately I don't have that luxury so I'm taking it easy. Am I still tired? Yes, Do my joints still hurt? Yes, but it should get less painful. Do I have a cough. No, but my asthma has been flaring up more than usual. Ironically I never had an actual fever but I did have the chills.
It sucks because literally the only way I would have never have caught it is a) not going outside and b) not leaving Alaska lol. Good news is once I catch it I won't be able to catch it again, so there's that.
Thanks desert!