Last Friday the area around my right side burn got swollen and raw. By Saturday afternoon it spread down the right side of my neck.
By Monday (Memorial Day) everyone was reminding me to see a doctor. It was all swollen and hurt a little with pins and needles pain.
Tuesday morning I am in the office. Two of my friends were saying “Wow, you look like crap”. A third friend walked in a little later took of his shades and said “Hey that looks just like Shingles!”
Shingles, as in the same virus that causes chicken pox. That’ll make me popular!
I left work 10 minutes after that, with one of my friends acting like I was infectious. After seeing the doctor, she confirmed it was shingles. I was sure it was just midlife acne or a bad rash caused by a bug bite.
Tuesday and Wednesday the thing began to really hurt. I couldn’t sleep because of the sharp pain. Today it’s hurting much less, shifting into a burning feeling. Shingles is a virus that lives in the nerves. It can’t be cured but with medicine the length of the flare up can hopefully be minimized. My friend had just seen it one someone else who complained about the pain. At the time I was thinking “what pain?” and now a couple of days later I know exactly what he meant.
Both kids have been vaccinated against chickenpox so no worries there. If I can keep the stress down at work and home then I should be fine. As it is, when something make me snarl I get stabbing pains in my neck. No joke.
That will teach me to take it easy from now on 🙂
