laurushka.org/blog

I’m still feeling a little achy from the Fifth Disease. I had a follow-up appointment with my doctor, and he brushed off the tiredness as “normal” tiredness, and didn’t seem concerned with my aches and pains. I was a little disappointed, but I really don’t want to do any treatments for it– from what I saw on the fifth disease message board, it looks like you could try taking prednisone (orally) or get cortisone shots. I don’t want to do either of those. The weather was very humid and hot the other week, and it was very bad for me, but since fall is coming, I have hope that the change in weather will help me get over this soon.

We watched Darby O’Gill and the Little People the other night (Joe has been telling Lilia stories about “wee people”). I then looked up the Wikipedia entry for it, and read about the actors. According to Wikipedia, the lead actress, Janet Munro, died at age 38 (!), of “myocarditis.” The entry for myocarditis says “Myocarditis is most often due to infection by common viruses, such as parvovirus B19“! The Fifth Disease virus! Woah.

So, even if the arthritis symptoms last as long as nine years (“Chronic joint pain has been known to last up to nine years.“), at least the infection didn’t go to my heart. Geez.