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SHINGLES
And, we ain’t talking roofing
Gusdavis Aughtry
Dang, this is one painful "mother." The reason I'm writing this essay is to convey my experience with Shingles and encourage those who have not thought of this: get the Shingles shot! There's probably a lot of stuff out there on Shingles but I couldn't find it. At least not the sort of stuff that was helpful. Surely there's a blog somewhere but I couldn't locate it.
Without overwhelming you with terms, let me say that Shingles is related to the chicken pox virus (in the herpes family)—that's comforting. The body, according to my first doc, thinks it is doing you a favor. Well, I could have stood less help. What I've discovered and is pretty much agreed upon is that if you had chicken pox as a child, you stand a good chance of getting the Shingles when you pass that magical mark of 50 (although I’ve heard of small children getting it). Google Shingles.
At first, I thought it was poison oak. Why? Well, I hang out with these bunch of guys, 8 or so, mostly vets who have opinions about everything—God, man and the universe. One of them has a dog. I petted the dog, the dog has been in poison oak, the owner had some poison oak. OK. Poison Oak. Here's the point. Hauling ass to the doc quickly is a key. It appears that early detection and treatment makes for a good chance of a lighter case. And, I heard several fellow sufferers of Shingles say that it is often misdiagnosed, even by the professionals. So, involvement with your own health is no small thing. Well, I would say that about your health in general, stay involved. An aside but relevant. Have you seen that commercial where the guy is renting a car or some inane activity. He asked a million questions. The next scene he is in his hospital gown. We don't know why he's there but for surgery or something related. The doc says, "any questions?" His answer, NO! Amazing and very effective. And, we need to be asking questions.
My Shingles started off slowly. A little itching, a few blisters, not much pain, a little irritation. I loaded up on over the counter stuff: ibuprofen, calamine lotion, about a half dozen other things. The blisters started disappearing. Suddenly, the pain hit like a ton of bricks. My daughter who is a physician says "Dad, I think you have shingles." Dang. I go to the doc at VA. (I had a few injuries from Vietnam and was hurt in a bad parachute accident in 82 and so go to VA for health care which isn't much, once a year for a physical). VA is associated with a top medical school, in this case, UCSF (University of CA at San Francisco) which is one of the top ranked medical schools and in my opinion has the best care facilities in the country, especially for cancer—can't be beaten. In fact, this is another aside, can't figure why the Prez doesn't use VA as a model for reforming our broken health care system. VA is a public option.
Shingles hurts like the dickins, in my case it’s the one sided malady. Where Shingles attack the body is where you have to deal with pain. In my case, the left arm. If it’s left side, all pain is there. Sometimes because the pain is so unrelenting, it is hard to know where it’s coming from--whether back, arm, fingers but always the left side for me. Basically from my shoulder down through my fingers and almost every night, with clock work regularity, the left shoulder took a hit. Relentless pain.
In many ways, they, whoever they may be, say I was lucky to have had the Shingles where they were. I think so, maybe. Many have a band around their waist, worst cases are the eyes which can cause blindness. I've heard of getting it in the scalp. There really seems to be no rhyme or reason. And, almost every single person you run across has a story to tell about somebody they know who had Shingles.
How to describe the pain? Let's try indescribable. It is sharp, often feels like someone with a sharp knife cutting or a sword in the back. And, the big difference in the nerve pain of Shingles and skeletal pain, at least to me—with skeletal, you can move around, get yourself in a position to ease the pain. With nerve pain, there is no easing it. It simply hurts and is constant.
HOW DOES A PERSON GET SHINGLES? I've heard them all. Stress mostly is one of the most frequent comments. What the hell is that? I've wracked my brain. The chicken pox scenario sounds plausible. Plus, something that sounds reasonable to me was explained by this physical therapist. She said something like, "Shingles needs a little crack in your immune system to sneak in." As a really healthy feisty older guy, I wracked my brain, "What could it be?" The absolutely only thing I could come up with and most of the professionals have nixed this idea. I often give blood. The last couple of times I've given blood, it has been this procedure called, Apheresis, where they take your blood out, extract the platelets and put it back in. I think it takes something like 48 hours to get back to where you were. I think that during that forty eight hours, the virus found an opening. Maybe?
Theories abound. And, although the docs know what the virus is, they are less sure how one gets it. The Shingles slips in on a weaken immune system. Maybe? The Shingles have been after me possibly for a long time. I remember odd sorts of breakouts with no real explanation. Here's a good one. A couple of years ago, my ring finger started hurting and burning. It happened with no warning. Reluctantly I took my rings off. Hurting and burning stopped. At various times, I tried again, the same thing happened. Shingles? Maybe?
At the pain clinic at VA, the doc said, "We know lots about shingles but we struggle on how to manage it once a person gets it." One of my first docs (I’ve had five different ones) gave me Gabapentin and at the time I was in excruciating pain and the pain meds made me sick. Try anything. Gabapentin is basically used I discovered for epilepsy. A friend of mine takes it for arthritis. She swears by it. I tried it for a bit and didn’t seem to help and I thought it had serious side effects.
GIVING UP ON WESTERN MEDICINE. No, not really but after awhile, if you are inrelentless pain, you'll try anything. So, let's give the acupuncturist a try. Getting to this particular one seems to be a little on the serendipitous side to say the least. I'm sitting at this coffee shop and this guy says to me, "You have shingles, right?" I immediately wonder how he knows. He heard me and some of my buds talk about it. After all, I am talking about it to most everybody I run across. Definitely made lots of money for the pharmaceutical industry. Get the shot. Who would want this pain if you could avoid it. Anyway, the guy tells me that his wife had Shingles and goes to this acupuncturist and in a few days, she is pain free. Wow. I get his name and get an appointment.
A really nice guy. Thin, also teaches tai chi. Guy can't be too bad— this is California. We chat for a bit and here comes the needles. I've never been scared of needles but I was surprised to feel nothing although people had told me I wouldn't. Was pretty impressed as he looked at my tongue and said I probably had digestive problems. It took me a bit to get what he meant, but fairly soon I got the drift. In fact, every time I think of this, I am reminded of a book I’ve recently read, City of Thieves. One of the main characters kept reminding us of the number of days since he had been successful sitting on the throne. He finally got up to ten days and was so proud when successful, he wanted people to see. I get it. In fact, the pain killers had awful side effects (constipation) and I initially thought the Gabapentin also. This later turned out not to be true.
After my three visits, I seemed to be getting a little better but then a time or two, the pain came back with a fury. I think these nerves are like living entities and have a mind of their own. They are fighting and scrapping to continue to do their thing. They are not giving up without a fight. The Acupuncturist did say that with some people, it took hours, others days and for some,1 weeks but eventually, I would get better.
Here it is 5 months down the road and I'm relatively pain free. The only issue remaining are three fingers and thumb on my left hand. Nothing compared to what it has been. Thank you Lord, HoooooAhhhhhhh GET THE SHOT
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