I have been kicking butt in the weight loss area. I am down 25 pounds from my starting weight. Monday, I woke up with stiff joints. I was hardly able to walk, but I pushed through. I was not, however, able to do any exercising. Tuesday, I was up half the night in so much pain. My hand hurt so badly and it felt as if my skin was going to rip right off of my hand, it was terribly swollen. So I went in to the doctor. I had to have some blood tests run and of course, we don't have all of the results back yet. She is pretty certain it's not an infectious arthritis because my white count and my SED rate were normal. But we are suspecting Parvovirus (also known as fifth's disease). It's mostly seen in children - and my dd currently has it. In children they don't even really know they have it. It is usually a rash. In adults it can either be the rash or swelling and painful joints. In reading about it, I have found that it can last from 1-2 weeks and in some cases a couple of months. I am a wreck. I want so badly to keep working out. On Friday I broke the 150 mark and hit 149. I don't want to start going backwards on all of my progress I have made. I am being really careful with my eating since I can't workout right now and being careful to stay in my calorie range. But I just want so badly to workout -- I didn't realize how much I was enjoying it until I wasn't able to do it. Does anyone else have experience with this virus?

3 of the 4 of my children had it when I was pregnant with my 4th child. I don't know about adults but in my children they had it for about 2 weeks. They all had really red rosy cheeks. No fever just that weird looking skin "rash". They say that they can test you to see if you've had it as a child and once you've had it, you can't get it again. It's highly contagious. The first week is when they are contagious the most but they don't show any signs until the second week and by then it's already too late. I know it's highly dangerous when you have it being pregnant though. I was lucky because I had it as a child and didn't have to worry about it.

Yeah, this is one of the tests that she's running. According to all the stuff I've read, adults don't always develop a rash. It said you could have one or the other or both or none. Nice huh? We'll know more by Friday, but until then, this seems like the best option for what is going on with me. I actually hoping this is it, as the other options are much worse.