Rough Week

I had every intention of getting my blogging on last week. That is until I started getting sick Friday night. I kept feeling worse and worse all night and decided I better call and cancel my Saturday appointments at work because I had the flu. Sunday I awoke to a little rash, but thought it was eczema and moved on with my day. My flu symptoms dissipated within a few hours and I no longer felt achy or chilled. How lucky to have such a fast flu, right? Sunday night I couldn't sleep due to my back killing and my little rash burning. In the morning I had a similar rash on my back where it had hurt really bad all night. I could tell something wasn't right. My arm had felt funny for days. Like I had been attacked by fiberglass or something.

Out of the blue a thought popped into my head. "SHINGLES"

I knew very little of Shingles, so I decided to look it up online. Sure enough all the symptoms fit. One thing stood out to me which was that I could spread Chickenpox to those who have never had them. UH OH. Emme had been with me that whole time.

An emotional phone call to my brother in law confirmed it sounded like Shingles. He made me feel better, by telling me it would be hard to pass to Emme. Not impossible, but she would actually have to touch the rash with her mouth.

I went to my doctor and sure enough...Shingles.

I found out you have to catch Shingles within 48 to 72hrs of getting the rash in order to be a candidate for the antiviral pills. The pills stop the virus in it's tracks. The doctor said he normally sees patients when it is too late and that I was lucky I found it so fast. PHEW! The rash did quadruple in size, but it could have been SO much worse. {I'll spare pictures.} He also told me it's pretty uncommon to happen at my age. Little does he know I'm living in body forty years my senior right now. I really think Lupron has a lot to do with it. Side effects are low immune system and anxiety which can bring out Shingles.

Last week was exhausting to say the least. Emme had her shots on Monday and didn't sleep well for three nights. I don't know why they affected her so bad this time, but they did. Good news is her ears were finally clear. We're still going to an ENT though. When she was sleeping I was awake due to the steroids they had me taking. Not to mention I worked a ton to make up for the Saturday I rescheduled. I can never say enough how lucky I am to have Gregg. Most humans would have threw in the towel.

I'm on the mend thanks to the divine inspiration to look up Shingles. It was a crummy situation, but one more opportunity to grow and rely on the spirit. Without that, I could have suffered a lot worse.

I wanted to add a picture of my daffodils. We have tons of these right now. They've had quite the beating with snow, but seem to be hanging in there.