My experience with Zika

So since I posted on my FB that I had contracted the Zika virus I had a lot of people messaging me asking questions about it so I thought I'd just do a blog entry on my experience. Here is the CDC: Zika website with facts, but this is my personal experience. From what I read symptoms vary, but this is what happened to me:

So Thursday of last week I woke up with, what I thought was, a goose egg on the back of my head closer to my neck. It was pretty good size and very tender to touch so I spent some time trying to figure out when I had bumped my head! That afternoon I felt SO tired, like I could barely keep my eyes open. I decided to lay down and nap with Ian in the afternoon which I very rarely do. When I woke up I knew I had to get ready for my Spouses Org meeting, but I felt so achey that I just wanted to keep sleeping. I had to force myself to get ready. By the time I left for the meeting I felt like I was freezing and had a splitting headache. Our meeting was at an outdoor restaurant and I was shivering the entire time. I didn't last long, because I just wanted to go back home. I walked home, which in reality isn't a long walk at all, but it felt like it took forever. I was drenched in sweat, but freezing at the same time. I got home and immediately took some Benadryl and tried to fall asleep. Luckily Jordan had already put the boys to sleep. I could not sleep though..every joint ached, and I was shivering so my whole body just hurt. I took my temperature and it was 102 degrees. My fever finally broke around 4am and I was able to fall asleep.

 Thankfully on Friday Jordan didn't have class until 10:30am so he let me sleep in. When I woke up I felt better, but still had a headache. I had Jordan examine my "goose egg" on the back of my head in which he determined was a swollen lymph node. Obviously I was fighting some kind of infection, he figured it was either sinusitis or the flu because of the body aches. I carried on Friday and felt decent, until the evening I developed a fever again! Tylenol helped, but when I woke up Saturday morning I noticed I was itchy all over. I didn't think anything of it because I have sensitive skin anyway. It was a beautiful day so I took the boys outside to take some photos of them and that's when I noticed I had developed a rash everywhere. When I looked in the mirror I freaked out because my face was swollen, red and splotchy and radiated heat. I couldn't even capture on camera exactly what the rash looked like.

 I sent a picture to Jordan and he was like "umm yea you have some kind of mosquito borne illness" so we decided to go to the St. Maarten Medical Clinic to get checked out. I did labwork, but as soon as the doctor looked over my rash he said it was either Dengue, but 99% positive it was Zika. He even discouraged me to get tested, and I have a personal theory on why he didn't want me tested, but I will keep that to myself. For now there's nothing I can do except ride the virus out. I can't be out in the sun because it makes my skin swell and itch even worse so my poor kids are stuck inside with me :(
Oh, and I also had my broken finger x-rayed and it is still broken and I was referred for physical therapy because the finger doesn't bend, people. So yea, basically I'm a mess! Luckily the rest of my family is happy and healthy. Oh, island life.