The Chainlink

West Nile - Maybe?

Over memorial day weekend, I took a spectacular ride up into Wisconsin.  On that ride, there was a stretch of a couple of miles in Kenosha along the lake that featured an *unbelievable* number of mosquitos (more mosquitos than I can ever remember to be honest).  However, I really didn't think too much about it at the time.

Flash forward about 8 days and I come home from work with the most unbelievable back-pain and pounding headache I can recall.  I grumble to my wife and just crawl into bed around 7pm feeling like crap.   Against my better judgment, and not being one to call in sick, I decide to go into the office the next day.  Not a good idea.  About 4 hours later, I'm in the ER after briefly collapsing unconscious on the ground in an Andersonville restaurant during lunch.  The hospital runs a whole battery of tests on the unusual suspects (head, heart, blood sugar) and finds absolutely nothing.  They send me home and tell me to get rest.   So, for the next 36 hours, I'm cowered under a blanket in bed, lying in a pool of sweat feeling horrible.  If I didn't know better, I'd say I had the flu except for the fact that whatever this was, it was totally unlike the flu (no cold-like symptoms such as a runny nose). 

I'm doing a lot better now--even going on a few short rides.    However, I am left wondering what in the hell was that?  No one else I know is sick.  After a bit of research, the symptoms sound almost like a textbook case of West Nile Fever, but I honestly don't know.   Has anyone else around here suffered through something like this and found out what it was?

Be well!

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Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on June 11, 2014 at 8:19am

Could have been? Here's Wisco's map on the virus, as of this year.

http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/communicable/arboviraldiseases/westnil...

I totally get what you're saying though. Back in '09 I contracted H1N1 - Swine Flu- and thought I was going to die. It was probably the worst week or so ever. 

Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on June 11, 2014 at 8:50am

Make sure they tested you for Lyme Disease too. My aunt was undiagnosed for a year and still has the effects.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 11, 2014 at 10:44am

Sorry to hear it.  Here's some info on West Nile and Lyme disease.  Julie makes a good point about Lyme disease. If you spent any time walking in tall grass or brush where you could have gotten a tick bite, it's possible. 

Permalink Reply by David Beazley on June 11, 2014 at 12:51pm

Not sure about Lyme disease---didn't have any obvious bites and I'm not sure I'd consider Sheridan Road a prime spot for picking up ticks.    Considering that WNV was active in Lake County and Kenosha last year though, I still consider it an outside possibility.   Going to visit the doc in a bit and will be curious to see if he has any ideas.

Permalink Reply by Dave Grossman on June 11, 2014 at 1:19pm

I am pretty sure my wife and I picked it up at Kettle Moraine about 6 years back.  There was a whole bunch of cases of it that summer as well.  We called it our "forest flu".  We had low grade fevers, aches, etc.  It sucked.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on June 11, 2014 at 1:22pm

I know a couple of people on the SW side/SW 'burbs who got severe enough cases of West Nile last year to be hospitalized for weeks, severely debilitated with months of recovery.  Yikes!  It seems like one of those things that isn't common enough for most of us to believe it's a real thing until it happens to someone we know - or to us.

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