So, here's how it all started

In October-ish 2007, I had some pretty bothersome flaring of my asthma. I was working in the ER at that time and everyone was recommended to get the flu vaccine. I had recently been on high doses of prednisone (a steroid), and opted out of the flu vaccine. Now, before anyone gets too stressed out about it, let me explain myself. I'm leery of the flu vax ANYWAY. I don't like that it's preserved with mercury. I also don't like the idea that it is basically someone's guess as to what strain of flu virus to use. Add in that Prednisone lowers your immune system and that the flu vax is a live virus, and I just decided to be VERY careful around my patients and skip the flu vax. It actually may have ended up saving my life, as the multi-dose vial they used was tainted somehow and several hospital employees ended up having severe allergic reactions. As severe of an allergic history as I have, this may well have been VERY bad for me.
So, fast forward to December. The ER had pretty much stopped seeing patients with postive flu tests. Meaning, nobody was really getting the flu anymore. On Dec 17, I started running a fever (VERY abnormal for me). By the next morning, I had full blown flu. I ended up with INfluenza A (which we hadn't seen in the ER since November, which was also NOT covered in the vax I didn't get. I'd have gotten the flu anyway, even if I'd been vaxed). By the 19th, I was still feeling crummy, and started breaking out in little red dots all over my legs. It's called a petechial rash, and it isn't a rash at all. It's capillaries (small blood vessels) spontaneously breaking just under the surface of the skin.
had one of my ER docs check it out. She explained to me the potential it had to be serious, but said that since all my labs were perfectly normal, she couldn't do much more. She did write me a prescription for prednisone (this almost ALWAYS responds to steroids), and told me it was in my best interests to follow up with my family care doctor.
And so it began.....