For the past week and a half, I've been dealing with a case of shingles. What I thought was a short-sleeved blouse chafing a couple of "spots" on my upper right arm last Tuesday ended up being this huge 4 inch by 4 inch mess. By the time my husband insisted I head to the hospital (seeing as it takes 6 weeks to see my family physician), it was too late to stop the infection from bursting out. I'm taking the anti-viral meds but they're likely only stopping the shingles from spreading beyond my upper arm (there's a spot on just above the inside of my elbow that has created a less-awful mirror spot on the other side of the elbow bend but other than that, it's been contained to the upper arm).
So just as the temperatures start to fall, I have to wear T-shirts because -- don't read this if you have a weak stomach -- this stuff oozes. The bigger the patch, the more oozing. Disgusting. It's on the front of my upper arm so it's pretty obvious.
"What happened to your arm?" was a common question this week. It actually looked back then like a bad burn. It's not just the blisters that come up; there is also this vast redness that encircles each spot and my arm is puffed up. First thing on Monday morning, Jane was busy and Charlie was on the phone when someone came in with an In Memoriam for the paper; after helping the customer, I went back to my desk and said, "Perhaps Scabby Annie shouldn't be dealing with the public."
On Monday night, I slathered Vitamin E gel on it because some of it was starting to dry up but that appeared to make it worse; yesterday, I slapped some aloe vera on those two lesser spots and cripes! dried them right up but sucked blood up too so the scab looks worse than it is. While I'm glad I didn't try it on the big patch, I'm amazed at how quickly the aloe vera dried the patch up; didn't "heal" it, per se, because the redness around it is still there.
Shingles really is awful. I'm lucky; I'm not experiencing any pain that often goes along with it. I get twinges in the deeper blisters (two of those) but nothing that needs painkillers. I've just used allergy medication for the itching and swelling.
Here's the thing: when this first broke out, I thought it looked like the cold sore I get on my nose. When I finally got around to Googling "shingles" (which is all I think the ER doctor did), it mentioned the danger of a shingles outbreak on the forehead or nose because it could spread to the eyes. I'm thinking I've been getting SHINGLES on my nose all these years. No wonder it was so bad. The website also mentioned the cream, Zovirax, for treating shingles. Well, I have a whole tube of that thanks to my cold sores so I slathered that on it yesterday and by jingo, that seems to be drying it up faster than anything (except the aloe vera but that instant moisture-sucking aspect is a little scary - what if I used it on my nose?!?)
My conclusion about this is that the anti-viral meds are fine (same stuff I was prescribed for cold sores) but the topical cream should have been prescribed as well. And I wonder what role aloe vera could play? So how do I get this knowledge back to the medical community? Not seeing my MD for treatment means there is no follow-up; am I getting better? what is working and what is not working? I'm going to have to write one of my newspaper columns about this.
I am going to make an appointment to see my doctor because I would like to explore this connection with my nose further so I need to see a specialist for that.
I'll be glad when I can start wearing long sleeves over the spot, though. I'm wearing a zippered fleece sweater so that I can keep fairly warm while having my right arm out. Works for the most part although the arm is cold all the time, and I peed on the unused sleeve last night because I forgot it was hanging down behind me when I sat on the toilet.