Fifth Disease

Well, I guess I can finally write about this.  I have had all kinds of weird crazy health problems going on for probably 6 months now.  After lots of doctor appointments, testing, worry, and emotion, I think we finally have a diagnosis.

It started right about when school started.  I had ridiculously dry sinuses and some other weird things going on. (I later learned from an internet article that that was a sign of a weakened immune system.  Hmmm - what do you suppose that brought on, other than 7 years of putting my body through a ridiculous level of physical activity combined with lack of sleep, eating horribly, and picking up colds from 4 kids all the time?)

So about the time that got better, I started having what SEEMED to be a bladder infection, only it lasted about 2 months and was no infection at all. Just as I was ready to throw in the towel and see a urologist after giving up on my Ob/Gyn, my legs got this rash all over (I had this once when I was pregnant too). Thankfully that cleared up after a few weeks, but THEN I started getting joint pain and swelling in several of my joints. As the swelling started going away, I would then experience numbness in my hands and feet. That was the week of Christmas.  I was an emotional wreck.  At that point I was thinking the worst of the worst.  Thankfully after much prayer and a few priesthood blessings, I felt okay by Christmas day with a few little odd things now appearing more infrequently.

I went to LA for New Years.  I actually had very little problems on our trip.  Again, more answered prayers.  In the midst of this, when I came home from the trip, Reagan woke up to see me the next morning with her little cheeks looking like she'd been chapped from playing outside in the cold.

When I picked her up from school that day she then had a rash all over her body.  After calling the pedi, they told me she had classic Fifth Disease. That was the first time I had ever heard of it. It's typically a mild childhood virus that is no longer contagious by the time it shows up.  Three of my kids ultimately had this during the month of January.

In the meantime, I'd gone to an internist, wondering if I had diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, bladder cancer, or who knows what else.  Tests all came back normal, yet I was still having all these symptoms, including recurring joint pain. I was like your old grandmother who has 20 cats and whose knees hurt every time it rains. And then I started having random abdominal cramping that would jump around all over. It didn't really hurt, but still it was there. Another weird symptom.

Over the last month, my symptoms have been getting fewer and fewer but still no answers.

So last week I finally get in to see a rheumotologist.  After going through my long list of crazy stuff, he asks me if anyone in my house has had any fevers or rashes.  Uh, hello?  I told you I had 4 kids - fevers are kind of a given.  But interesting that he said rashes.  So I told him 3 kids just had Fifth Disease. He almost smiled and then looked at me and said "it sounds like you're describing Fifth Disease."

I couldn't believe it, given that what I was experiencing was nothing at all like what my children had! So I rushed home and went to the ultimate authority in medicine - the Internet - to check it out. Lo and behold, it is totally different in adults than it is in children, and also very uncommon in adults. Typically an adult with a weakened immune system can get it though it doesn't have to be the case. The funny thing is, when my kids had it, I thought "why is it called Fifth DISEASE? That sounds so horrible for what is just a virus that is no big deal." But now I know.  It is like a disease for adults and in rare cases children and can take up to 6 months to go away or can leave lasting effects that my never fully go away.

So today the bloodwork confirmed Fifth Disease. So weird. By the way, it is going away. I think I am almost there. He DID say though that the bladder is unrelated. And I still don't know what brought this on to begin with, but for all purposes everything is fine.  It's been a real wake up call to take better care of myself. But truthfully, I don't know what more I could have done up until now. All moms know, we put ourselves last and hope to do what we can with what's left, which is often nothing. But over the last few years I didn't have it in me to do anymore than I was already doing.  I'm at least glad I started back at a gym a year and a half ago. And now I've cut down on my sodas. That's something I guess.

The bladder is a lot better, so I guess I'll just hold off for now.  But there you have it.  Some weird (what seems to be temporary) immune system/bladder problem, and...Fifth Disease. Two months ago I had never heard of it, and now I know more about that and many other diseases, autoimmune and otherwise, that I never knew before. It makes me conscious of so many others who are walking around struggling with all these diseases.  I am so grateful to be okay, and yet I can't help but think of those who get a much different diagnosis than me.  Ignorance really is bliss, but wisdom makes us better people.