Last Monday (8 days ago) morning I had some pains in my right shoulder. It was really sore and I figured I had just pulled a muscle moving a pinball machine. Tuesday I was sore all down the arm and back on my shoulder blade, Wednesday I was having sharp shooting pains down my arm and muscle spasms. Thursday the pain had moved mostly to my arm and I was betting I had pinched a nerve. After work and dinner I asked Theresa to give me a massage. When I took off my shirt she sorta gasped. I had 4 marks on my elbow area that looked really mad. I went to the doctor Friday morning and was diagnosed with shingles.
Shingles is strange. It is not something you can catch from contact. It is the same virus that causes chicken pox which lies dormant in the base of a nerve root for all of our lives after we have CP as a kid. For reasons not really known sometimes bits of the virus leave the base of the nerve and travel down the nerve paths and cause pain and rashes. The blisters on the rash can spread the CP virus. I was very lucky to have it diagnosed very early and immediately started taking anti viral meds to stop the spread. I was given a Rx for pain pills as well because the doc said it is going to be painful.
Here are some pics if you are interested (warning sorta gross)
Good thing I decided to fill the pain pill Rx. As the shingles continued to spread all over my arm the burning pain of the rash and the deep pain under the skin felt like it was eating my bones. The rash stopped spreading after two days of taking the pills, but they still ran their course. You cannot put anything on the blisters to stop the pain until they start to scab over. The ones that spread to my hand did not blister, but they are insanely painful. Using my hand to open doors and stuff stings. Driving a stick hurt too.
I took Tuesday off from work while the few remaining blisters heal up. I never really knew what shingles was. I thought it was an old persons disease from being generally unclean, but that is not the case at all. They do not really know how it gets triggered. Most think it is stress, but I really have none. This should build up my immunity though. I will know the warning signs if they appear again. I am lucky it was my arm that got it. Searching on the web for info showed some really messed up cases where it covers the head, neck, and face. Seems most common on your chest. People say it feels like you broke a rib.
I was pretty embarrassed because I knew so little about it before I suffered from it. I felt like I had leprosy after watching the doc sanitize his had after each time he touched me or my clothes. I did not know I was capable of spreading CP until I started researching. I figure telling my story might help others, especially because a third of us will experience it in our lifetime.
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