Valley Fever

So here's the story: In early October I got really sick with Strep throat and maybe the swine flu. (we don't know for sure if it was swine flu) I was in bed for three days straight. Will gave me a blessing and some antibiotics. A few days later I remained sick with the fever and achiness, so Will changed my perscription to something stronger. I did get better, so I thought. I was able to do things but at night I was exhausted and still having low grade fevers. I just kept telling Will I didn't feel good. I had no energy to do anything and I would take naps with the kids during the day. Which I never do. So after about a month of this going on everyday, I went into Will's work and gave several containers of blood. I gave blood on a Thursday and on Saturday morning I came down with this rash. The first picture here is Saturday the start of it. Sunday morning I freaked. I had it worse on my chest and it was all over my arms. It itched sooo bad. To the point I was in tears. It was hot to the touch and very, very bumpy and very red. Monday morning came with no results from the blood work. So we waited until Tuesday. They got the preliminary report from the lab and it said I had valley fever. What!! I didn't even know what Valley fever was. The lab wanted to do more tests so we waited until Wednesday. The test was confirmed. So the plan: anti-fungal medicine for 9 months! Yep that's right 9 months. I had to take some medicine for the rash until it got under control. But wait it gets better. About a week after I started taking the anti-fungal medicine my ankles and knee joints started to swell bad. I could barely walk. I couldn't get out of bed(our bed frame is low to the ground). So Will would have to help me. It was terrible and very worrisome. I was swollen for about 1 and 1/2 weeks. I ended up going back to Will's office and get checked out by Dr. McClure. Will was worried! They changed my medicine to a higher dose and gave me pain meds. The pain meds made me sicker than a dog. The only good thing out of it was that I lost weight because I was never hungry. I'm off the pain meds and am doing much better. I have some scaring from the rash but it is slowly fading. So there you go. Here's some nasty pictures of the rash.