HandyMom

Has anyone ever heard of a delayed onset of symptoms for WNV? I'm curious in regard to a recent illness I had. It's midwinter where I live, WAY too cold for mosquitoes, but a few nights ago I developed a "dengue-like" illness and am curious as what type of virus it might have been caused by.

Monday evening, when I got home from work around 5:30, I felt fine. By 7pm, I felt HORRIBLE. Within what felt like a 5-10 minute period, I developed terrible joint pain, primarily in my low back, hips and knees. By 8pm, I had developed a fever of 103.8, chills, nausea and the absolute WORST retro-ocular pain I have ever felt. My eyes literally felt as if they would explode. Within a few hours, I also developed shortness of breath, tachycardia, aching in my upper teeth/molar area, dizziness and intermittent abdominal cramping/pain. I never experienced any vomiting, diarrhea, sore throat or nasal discharge.

I had my mother bring me to Urgent Care about 5am, where they did a sinus x-ray, bloodwork and a urinalysis. The x-ray showed no evidence of a sinus infection, and percussion over the sinuses brought very little discomfort. My white blood cell count was within normal limits as were the results of the urinalysis, so I was sent home with a diagnosis of "viral syndrome" and instructed to treat the symptoms and return if I got worse or did not improve in the next 3-5 days.

As a nurse, I realize there are MANY different viruses floating around out there, and working in a clinic I am exposed to a heck of a lot of them. I'm feeling TONS better tonight than I did on Monday, but I'm still curious as to what kind of a virus would strike so hard and so fast. From the symptoms, it -sounds- like a WNV type illness; however, it's the dead of winter here and therefore is currently mosquito-free. The typical incubation period for WNV is 5-15 days, and I am quite certain it's been far longer than that since I was last dined upon by our locally named "state bird".

Is it at all possible to harbor the virus for several months before developing symptoms? Is the acute viral phase something that would resolve in 3-5 days if the answer to the previous question is 'yes'?

In all probability, what I experienced was not WNV and would be impossible to really identify, but I'm just curious whether it could be a possibility.

Any thoughts?

~Suzy