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I'm sick. Tuesday I discovered a rash under my left arm. At the time, I was suffering from a muscle pull in the same region and felt more pain from that.
Thursday, it became obvious the rash was shingles. I've got meds now and the pain meds make me sleepy and at least two other dwarves.
Meanwhile, Piper and Amy are also sick. I think theirs are colds. Jamie is sick, too.
Forgive us if we are a little slow on updating this week.
Hugs (carefully),
Erin and the gang
Comments
Get well everybody!
EOM
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
Shingles!
That's scary to even think about. My mother sort of drove a fear into me about both Chickenpox and Shingles. Apparently I never had chickenpox as a child and she was quite insistent that I even had to stay way from my own kids when they had them. When my father got Shingles she met me at their door, wouldn't let me in the house, telling me about him getting it and not to come back until she called to say it was safe.
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Unfortunately shingles shot is not 100% effective
I had one chicken pock but am still at risk for it.
None
I don't remember getting chicken pox at all. I'm sure I was told I never had chicken pox or rubella (or as it was called in those days, "German Measles". Yet, a few years ago, I got shingles. Go figure.
At least mine was a light case. It hit on my forehead, just above my right eye. If it hadn't been for the secondary infection that got into my eye, I'd have not really paid much attention to it. As it was, I lost two days work because I couldn't trust my vision. (I was a truck driver.) I had no insurance at the time, so getting some meds to clear up the eye infection was a bit of a problem. Ended up at a county clinic and had to rub some cream in my eye twice a day, for 4 or 5 weeks to get rid of it.
It resulted in the iris flaking off the color and jamming it so the reaction to light change was slow. Another week off work while we treated that with some extra strong dilation meds. It wasn't 100% effective. It's still a bit slow.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
The shot can't be. The
The shot can't be. The virus is a relative of herpes, so it hides in the cellular walls for decades. The 'shot' is to just reinform your immune system as to what the virus looks like, in case it comes out again. If you've never had it, then the shot works better (it's basically just a chicken pox vaccine)
So, despite my having it 40 years ago, I'm still at risk for a resurgence - because it's not gone.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Newly Approved Vaccine in US
Shingrix is now approved for use in the US. It is supposed to be better than 90% effective. The old drug, Zostavax, is only about 50% effective. Shingrix requires two doses over a set period of time. My doctor told me in December that there is currently lots of demand and supply can be iffy. He advised that I wait until my pharmacist says that it's no problem getting the drug as my doctor's had patients needing their second dose have trouble finding the drug. I believe Shingrix has been available for a while in the EU and many other parts of the world.
Shingles Vaccines
When my Tiggress was in hospice, she came down with a case of shingles that made her last days even more hellish. I was more than a little annoyed because she HAD been given the vaccine and the fact that she still got the disease just seemed like piling on.
At that time (circa 2014) I subsequently found out that there were then two versions of the vaccine. One for a 'normally healthy elderly person) which is what my wife got two years before she was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer. The other vaccine was targeted at people with compromised immune systems. You know, like someone who had just gone through 8 months of intensive chemotherapy. To be fair, if we'd thought of it (or known of it) at that time, the cancer had likely already compromised her immunity already and the newer, stronger version might not have helped.
But it might have . . .
Bottom line. Get the shot. My insurance covered it after I turned 62. Medicare should. Second, there are a lot of reasons for one's immune system to be compromised. Talk to your doctor!!! Even (especially!!) if you've already had the shot, find out if the newer stronger stuff is indicated in your case.
It was hell for Tiggress in her last days, and hell for me to be so damned helpless and watch her suffer even more than she had to already.
Here's prayers and warm fuzzy thoughts to you, Erin, and your partners and friends. Everyone else, don't let this be a 'dumb question' because you didn't ask it. ASK IT!
Tiggs
Been there
On occasion still doing that
You have both my empathy and prayers
Love, Andrea Lena
I had facial shingles on my
I had facial shingles on my left side of face this summer. May your illness be as painless as possible.
>>>>>I'm a new soul.I came to this strange world.Hoping I could learn a bit bout how to give and take.<<<<<
Singles ugh
Singles is the Chickenpox virus that never left out bodies once we had it. I understand it is very treatable now days.
I'm in sympathy pain with the flu. Treating it with massive doses of vitamin C 1000 mg and Lysine 1000 mg twice a day. Hot lemonade to clear the flam out of the throat and slow down the coughing. Enough Excedrin to start my own pharmacy dull the pain. Feel like I been trampled in the cow lot and left to turn into fertilize with the rest of the manure
Get well hon, love you
always,
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Depends
It really depends on how the disease presents itself and how soon it's diagnosed and treated properly. The disease can be a minor irritation or very dangerous.
The Virus is really stubborn
I had Chicken Pox aged 8 and got Shingles aged 59. In the interim, I got Hairy Cell Leukaemia and ended up in ICU with no immune system. After all the treatment including Chemo it was still lurking somewhere in my body.
The Doc I saw in Amman who diagnosed it likened it to the cockroach of the virus world. How true this is I don't know but I do know that it is a pesky bugger alright.
Erin, take heart. You are not alone with this.
Samantha
Pretty close. The viruses
Pretty close. The viruses that all do the same sort of thing are Herpes, HPV (related), Chicken Pox (Related), and HIV. All of them hide in the cell walls, which means the immune system can't see them until it they're already replicating. So, even if the body destroys the active viruses, (virii?) there's a reservoir of inactive virus waiting to spring out when the body's immune system isn't ready.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Ouch
That is a very painful sickness. I never had Chicken pox as a kid, I did get the singles shot. My son has had 2 bouts with singles
Get well soon CYBER HUGS
Get well soon Erin
I know how it feels to get it. I got a dose of it while abroad on business. It hit above my right eye so the doc would not let me fly home for a week.
Sitting in a Hotel room for the best part of a week in a Middle Eastern Desert Nation during its infrequent snow fall is no fun at all.
I looks like you got it in time so stay calm and have patience. It will get better but it may take some time.
Samantha
Ouch!!!
I hope the shingles don't last long. I hope all of you recover soon.
If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
― Toni Morrison
Shingles
Shingles is horrible. Everyone who every had chicken pox should get the new vaccine. Unfortunately, there is still a waiting list. But get it! If you are older, and don't know if you had chicken pox, you had it.
Yes
You want to get the new vaccine (Shingrix) as soon as supplies are stable in the US (for those of us here). Don't rely on having had the older vaccine (Zostavax) already.
Here's the CDC Shingles link: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/shingles/index.html
Erin, I hope you recover soon
My wife had shingles a couple of years ago and she was miserable for quite a while.
two other dwarves
I hope that the two other dwarves are Happy and either Doc or Bashful. You don't want Grumpy or Sneezy.
Get well soon.