Wolf Goes to the Doctor, 2006 Edition

[wolf]

For those of you who don't know, I'm not big on going to the doctor, not big at ALL. I actually found out today that I was last at my PCP's office in February, 2003. This was related to my Gall Bladder removal.

One of the ways that I get away with not going to the doctor is that I have a physician handy 40+ hours per week. Usually, he comes through for me, gives me the hook up on the Z-pack, or whatever I might need.

Well, last night, the only thing he told me was "go see your family doctor."

Which, incidentally, was exactly the right call, even if I didn't realize it at the time.

Three days ago, I felt a little yucky.

Two days ago, I found a blotchy looking thing on the left side of forehead.

Yesterday, I found four more smaller blotchy things on the left side of my forehead, and a swollen and painful gland on the left side of my neck.

Today, I did the smart thing for a change and went to see a doctor. Today I found out that I have Shingles.

Not the roofing kind, but the Chicken Pox virus that hides in your nervous system until you least expect it and BAM ... it sneaks up on you through your nerve pathways and makes you feel icky and have pain and itching and tingling with no actual cause other than the nerves get all confuzzled and send inaccurate messages to your brain. You know that thing where you feel someone touching you on the shoulder or tugging at your hair (gently) and you whip your head around and you can't see them? It's like that feeling. Over and over and over at random.

Because of the particular location the Shingles chose to emerge, there is also danger that my eye can become infected.

I have a couple of different kinds of meds, none of which will actually cure the virus, but the doc hopes will shorten the course of the disease, and one to try to keep it out of my eye.

Yes, it is really gross.

No, I don't intend to take pictures.

On the upside, the Infection Control Practitioner won't allow me back at work until I'm dry and crusted, even though the doctor told me that I'd be fine just so long as I wore a bandanna over the area.

I am only contagious to people who have never had Chicken Pox. You can't transmit Shingles to anyone else, but you can transmit Chicken Pox by contact.