it seems unlikely, but...

If you haven't seen the news, the heat here has been ridiculous. It was 107º yesterday, and it wasn't a dry desert heat either. It was a burn-your-butt when-you-get-in-the-car-and-drench-your-clothes-when-get-out-of-the-car-and-walk-four-steps-to-get-to-the-house kind of heat. And no one gave me any free food today, so double annoying.

I've been busying inside, trying to get all my work done before our trip to the Northeast starts next week. I hit a setback on Monday when I came down with some sort of mystery ailment. It started with some muscle cramps when I took Barney for our daily jog. Later that night, I developed a high fever, headache, and muscle cramps. I've been through all those things before, but for some weird reason, it was probably the most uncomfortable I've been in my whole life. That includes breaking my face and all of the times I've thrown out my back.

It's really weird. No one else around was sick, and I didn't seem to have passed it to anyone. The worst of it lasted for about 36 hours, but my temperature regulation is still off. I'm sweating a puddle into the couch right now, and I just feel really off. Because I got eaten alive by mosquitos while I was working outside about a week before I got sick (probably 50 - 100 bites), I kept (half) joking to Sarah about how I must have gotten Malaria.

In reality, I just figured it was the flu or food poisoning or something, but then tonight something I saw on TV that reminded me about West Nile Virus. So I looked it up. One of the variants of the virus is something called West Nile Fever. It fits my symptoms very well. Add that to the mosquito bites, the fact that West Nile been found in our area, and the fact that no one else is sick or getting sick. It really makes me wonder if I actually got it.

If I did, it's good news in a way. Sure, I was really sick and uncomfortable, but there's a pretty good chance I'm now inoculated against any future outbreaks.