It's official...

So if you've talked to me in the last few days, you probably know I've been mostly miserable since Sunday.

At first I thought it was a cold...then I thought I was dying. The latter has been the most prevalent conviction since then..

I felt like I'd been hit by a truck at first, then I was nearly convincecd that I had long hot needles being jammed through every joint, bone, and organ in my body. Luckily, feelings are decieving, and there weren't any actual pieces of metal attacking me (I think). 

I basically slept Sunday evening through Thursday morning. 

Then, on Thursday I did school with the kids because I wasn't feeling quite so awful and my fevers were down to around 99* or so. 

We had a fun time learning about St. Patrick's day (I was too sick to do school on the Tuesday during the real holiday...but it worked out)

Then I went over to Joanna's with all the kids (Zach, Forrest and Emma--the new kids on the block-- came to school with us that day and to lunch). But at lunch that feeling of, "oh dear, I think I'm dying..." started to return. 

So I walked home. And ended up having other stuff to do like identifying a large snake that was just like the one in this house (except this one was a lot larger) and a skype date. At about 4 I started really feeling horrible and my fever was almost 102*. So I took a nap, the rest of the evening is actually really hazy. I remember being cold and taking a shower to get warm and still feeling cold. I remember Lisa leaving (she had told me she was but for some reason I thought she meant some other day...) and then I slept. 

That evening my dad was online and he was nice enough to talk to me while I mourned for myself and tried to explain my misery. Then he told me to go to the hospital in the morning and see a doctor.

This whole time Lisa had suggested that perhaps it was Congo Fever...something she had gotten. But then, she said when she had it she had bone crushing pain and couldn't get up.

I maintained the whole time that I did hurt and that it felt exactly like a flare of fibromyalgia (except for the fever and headache behind the eyes). I'm used to pushing through that, so I did.

Anyway, she commented again last night to keep an eye out for the rash that would be a sure sign of the fever, except this time she said it'd start on my chest...my response? "Oh, like this?"

I'd noticed my neck/chest looking a little mottled, but that's where one of my tan spots is and so it always looks weird to me. Color is funny looking, I'm used to milk white. 

But then we couldn't decide if it was a rash or if I was just patchy...so the plan was to go down to the hospital today and see one of the doctors.

When I got up this morning my fever wasn't as bad, but I felt awful. I couldn't tell if the rash was worse, but I was pretty sure it was a rash.  I knew there was no way I could walk down to the hospital since I didn't want to walk down to the kitchen even.  My headache was so bad that my vision was flickering weirdly. So I took a shower (to get warm again...still freezing, which is a sign you're not quite right when it's in the mid 80s. ) and went back to bed instead.

Lisa came back at 11:30 or so, and I was embarressed that I'd fallen asleep again, so I got up and tried to act natural by standing like a zombie in my dark room staring at the wall. Realising that was not so impressive I grabbed my hair gel. Who doesn't stand around using hair gel  on their mostly dry hair in the dark?

Lisa said Karen was here, so I went down and she saw the rash and Lisa was sure it was one now too, and they decided it was Red Congo Fever. (So dad, I didn't go down to the hospital, but I did have a house call by a nurse practitioner...Lisa wanted me to tell you that)

Lisa was really excited about this, first because she diagnosed it and second because she said this makes me an offical missionary now. 

I'm not sure that I'm quite as excited as her. But they did tell me I needed to stay home and rest otherwise I won't get better and that made me happy because that's what I wanted to do but I felt like I should go watch the kids since I've been so absent this week.

So now I'm about to go back to sleep. At noon. Because I can barely keep my eyes open. I'd appreciate your prayers that I recover soon.

Your now official red and achy missionary,

Jessica