"Devil's Illness"

I was finally able to "create" a drug in my book that has not yet been made in the real world or even has a name that sounds remotely close. This was a surprisingly difficult task. It took several tries and almost an hour's worth of research. Emphasis on almost. I really wanted something unique, but each creative attempt was either off by a letter from being a real drug, or was already one. The end result: diloxidrin. It's the cure for my (fictitious) disease known as Devil's Illness for Changing Kathryn, the profile for which I'll go ahead and add as I'm proud of how it turned out:

Name: Devil’s Illness Deathbell Syndrome
Type: bacterial infection
Cause/source: unknown [bacteria residing in deathbell flowers]
Cure: diloxidrin

Main Symptoms:
-  Joint redness
-  Tingling/shaking limbs
-   Random bleeding and bruising
-   Incessant shivering
-   Fever 105+
-   Moments of delusion
-   Blistering sores
-   Can cause temporary to permanent blindness, deafness, paralysis, etc. (in extreme cases or when left untreated)

What to expect: within 3-5 days after infection one may notice an increase in nose bleeds, notice bruises appearing without due cause, and sometimes hands, feet, or other limbs will start shaking on and off around this time. One may also start shivering randomly, and joints will become red to the point of swelling. Sores will also start to form, though these often look no different from a bug bite and will also itch like one. These symptoms will have a noticeable increase in severity over a few days, developing new symptoms seemingly overnight. 

Within 6-9 days upon exposure, victims of DBS will notice incessant shivering, itching/blistering pus-oozing sores, as well as blood in eyes, urine, stool, gums, etc. Tingling limbs will become persistent and joint swelling will increase to the point of near to complete dysfunction. Blindness is experienced by the vast majority of people at this point too and may very well become permanent if not treated right away. The experience of temporary blindness often subdues the severity of the experience of joint redness and the tingling. An altered mental status may also be experienced in extreme cases when left untreated; this generally only happens within 8-10 days upon exposure and will result in high fevers (105+).  

Worst cases archived: two survivors of DBS were camping. They were unable to seek help by the time they were hit, and thus went un-diagnosed for two weeks until they were discovered by S&R. One suffers from permanent blindness as well as a weakened kidney; the other had to be removed. The other is now paralyzed from the waist down, and was only able to regain use of their right arm again after extreme diloxydrin treatments. 

Rarity: 1 in [85]
©2017

If You Ever Had Any Doubt as to What a Paragraph is:

"Paragraphs are the building blocks of papers. Many students define paragraphs in terms of length: a paragraph is a group of at least five sentences, a paragraph is half a page long, etc. In reality, though, the unity and coherence of ideas among sentences is what constitutes a paragraph" –The Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill

Taking it Down & Editing it Up

I have temporarily paused my "Changing Kathryn" Chapter Teasers blog once again as while I was rereading over some of the stuff I noticed some fairly significant plot details as well as errors that I had to fix. But that's what I get for posting these things before the book is actually done.

Thanks for sticking it out with me!
-Kay R.