I Am a Carpenters Daughter ..

.... so is that why I got shingles ?? O_o

I kid you not .. I woke up a week ago Friday with a very sore right eyebrow .. thinking that I must have a sinus infection. By Saturday I had several welts of varying sizes over my eye and into my hair .. one .. above the right half of my eyebrow was HUGE with great red spots in it. I thought .. good God !! what kind of a bug leaves marks like that ?! I figured it must have been a bug bite of some sort as it itched like crazy .. and was red and swollen .. like a bad reaction to a bite. And hurt .. my goodness .. shooting pains that make a person cringe.

By Monday .. things not looking any better .. I called my naturopath and as soon as I described it .. she told me to get to my other 'mainstream' doctor .. as she said it sounded like shingles and there was a new med .. that although she rarely encouraged the use of such things .. this worked very well at reducing the severity and length of the ailment.

Great .. I haven't seen a 'regular' doctor in years !! I hope they still recognize me .. O_o

He did .. and confirmed that 'yup .. sure is what you have' .. and prescribed the meds for me. By then I hadn't been feeling very well for a couple of days .. the pain was in stabbing waves .. the itch insistent .. I had swollen glands along the right side of my face near my ear and into my jaw .. and .. for some reason .. my eyelids had begun swelling with fluid and I could hardly see out of my right eye. I was VERY concerned as the face .. around the eye .. is a very BAD spot for shingles ! He told me .. 10 - 14 days to get over the virus .. 3 - 6 MONTHS for the marks on my forehead to disappear .. and possibly nerve pains for up to a year after !! Um .. WHAT ?! .. O_O .. and this is WITH the med ?!?! O_o

It seems that shingles is a bit of left over virus .. from when we have chicken pox as kids .. that goes dormant in our spinal column .. the doc pointed to a spot behind his head on his neck .. that .. for reasons they don't fully understand .. becomes active along nerve paths .. hence the awful pains. My naturopath said I must be run down ... but I have been feeling fine before .. so .. who knows.

Regardless .. I've put in a miserable week .. and have a good week left. My welts have opened and I am now contagious .. NOT for shingles, mind you .. but for CHICKEN POX !! O_O

Good thing everyone in this house has had them already. O_o

** Update : May 23/07 .. feeling much better .. the swelling has .. thankfully .. left my eye in the past couple of days .. so I no longer have the urge to scream .. "I am NOT an ah-nee-maahl" every time I pass a mirror .. :D And .. aside from the occasional itchiness in the STILL reddened area .. some small pains .. and some weird godawful crawling/pressure sensation along my eyebrow .. I'm mostly better .. :)