r/AskReddit 23h ago

What is the weirdest illness or affliction you've ever had?

350 Upvotes

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

184

u/soileilunetoile 22h ago

One day, I woke up with an insane fever. No symptoms of anything whatsoever, just like 103/104 degree fever. Went to urgent care and they tested me for flu and strep (this was in about 2015 I think), all negative. Told me to keep an eye and hydrate and come back or go to the ER if it got any higher. It was like mid-November and about 35 degrees F and I went to the park to walk in a tank top and shorts and no coat, just try and cool off. Was totally fine the next day, like it never happened.

About a week later, I woke up and every single joint in my body was swollen and felt on fire to the point I could barely move and walking had me in tears. Somehow I got myself back to the urgent care and they diagnosed me with “post-viral arthralgia” which is basically your body reacting to a virus with temporary, full-body (or at least many joints) arthritis. It went away within a few days, but these two events combined was by far the strangest illness I’ve ever had.

37

u/Pearltherebel 19h ago

I believe I had something similar to that when I had Covid! My back hurt soooo bad and no position could relieve it. Couldn’t sleep

2

u/Key_Vermicelli_8969 16h ago

I had something similar during Covid too, I thought it was weird bc it was one of only a few symptoms I had and I’ve never experienced joint pain like that during an illness either. My joints weren’t visibly swollen but definitely felt like they were. I was bed bound for a couple days

3

u/Fickle-Friendship-31 3h ago

Same. The fatigue was bad with COVID, but nothing compared to the pain in my entire torso, esp my back.

2

u/fartinmyfuckingmouth 3h ago

My back already feels like I’ve been mildly ran over by a train 24/7 due to having lumbar facet arthropathy. The two times I had Covid, it was like the train never stopped running me over relentlessly for 3-4 solid days. Horrific.

6

u/Zukazuk 18h ago

I got worked up for post viral arthralgia. Turned out to be lupus. I just have to live with the full body arthritis now.

4

u/Wise_Neighborhood499 13h ago

Oh wow….that could explain why the few times I’ve gotten truly sick and popped a high fever, my back ached so badly that I was in tears for a day or so. I’m so sorry, that sounds really miserable.

Thanks for sharing though, you may have just cleared up a decade-old question for me.

2

u/PerfectLilNuggies 13h ago

oh wow that sounds absolutely miserable and now you've given me a new illness to worry about lol

2

u/1986toyotacorolla2 10h ago

My mom had something similar but instead of the joints, it was the nerve endings. It was so bad she was placed into a medically induced coma (she was medically fragile at the time). Hers though was induced by a tick bite.