So the verdict is in on the mystery bug that has kicked my ass these past few weeks…
Talk about a comedy of errors.
So I get a cold, in fact everyone I know got this cold. Kicked all our asses in swift succession. The week after I beat the cold, my left foot starts hurting. Nothing severe, just a slight ache. I go to the gym that Wednesday, do my workout, and just notice that I’m exceptionally more winded than usual. Figure I’m still a little sick so I take some more time off from the gym.
Saturday morning I wake up, my feet are so sore and swollen they won’t hold my weight. No pain reliever seems to help, I can’t even get my shoes on. Despite the flu shot I received a month or two earlier, I took a guess that due to my aches I caught the flu. I go to the doctor, his two guesses are Gout and Lyme disease. I get some anti-inflammatory medication and antibiotics… Neither has any effect. Lyme test comes back negative and I’m then prescribed Prednisone, a steroid, to combat the swelling and joint pain. While this is going on by the afternoon I’m exhausted, and everyone is telling me I have lyme disease.
So I finish my steroid 5-day pack and within 2 days my ankles are again swelled up and aching – bad. I go back to the doctor, get another anti-inflammatory which doesn’t work (rapidly switched over to Prednisone again) and 3 more blood tests. This time, one more Lyme test, one for Arthritis, and lastly something called Parvovirus. No, it’s not just a dog virus.
Gout is out because it usually attacks just one limb, specifically the foot / big toe. Lyme is out because it tends to migrate from joint to joint. Tests come back negative for Lyme again, Arthritis, but Parvovirus is positive.
Absolutely NO idea how I got it. Only thing I can think of is that it piggybacked on the cold I had, or it was the cold I had. Why my friends didn’t have as severe a reaction as myself I do not know, but then again I doubt any of them was leg pressing an obscene amount of weight while sick either. So I’m still on steroids for another 10 days, hopefully when I finish them the pain/swelling won’t come back and I’ll have kicked the virus.
Figure I’ve been sick for over a month now, held back by various complications. My doctor is telling me I need to lose weight, and while I could stand to lose a few pounds most of my weight is muscle. So here’s to hoping when my pills run out I’m back to normal and I can get back to the gym. I have enjoyed the extra time to play video games, but just the same I’d rather be throwing around weights at the gym instead of straining my rear end on the futon playing Xbox.
