So We're Back to Shingles...

Well well well. It appears my post on Monday was a bit premature in the fickle world of how my body behaves.

When the doc saw me on Monday, the thought of shingles was dismissed since there were no lesions and sufficient time had passed since my first tingly symptoms and the normal time that shingles lesions tend to show up. On Tuesday, my husband looked at my ear (my doink, actually) and said hey you have a sore here. Well, I assumed I had scratched it raw in my sleep and didn't call the doctor. I was told to call if any blisters formed. This was just a scab. One. So I wrote it off as my own scratch and went on my merry - albeit itchy - way. She had also said to call her if I wasn't significantly improved by Wed/Thu.

Yesterday (Wed), I was miserable. The swelling on the left side of my face had increased in area. The itching was increasing. The needly prickly electric-shocky stuff was less but still hurt like crazy when it did hit. And a new intense pain (I call it my ice-pick-through-the-skull pain) had surfaced in and around the ear. So...I'm thinking that qualifies as "wasn't significantly improved." I made an appointment for early this AM.

Today, they looked at me (they being my doc and she pulled in another for consultation) and noticed my "scratch" was a lesion. [Now, I have to comment on the word "lesion". I'd prefer blister but it's not a blister. It's a round little scab. And it's dark red - almost black. This kind of lesion is the kind of thing that makes people shrink away from you. I feel like walking around yelling, "UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!" I have the one on my ear-doink. I have 2 lovely large ones on my lower lip. They are not as dark and forboding as the ear-doink lesion. They look like cold sores. Which still makes my husband not want to kiss me and makes all other men sigh in relief at the sight of my wedding band. But those little buggers on my lip hurt WAY worse than the nasty looking one on my ear. They itch like banshees and I can't touch them without sending myself screaming and wanting to punch myself for daring to touch them. Good fun.] So that lesion moved them back to thinking shingles. And the fact that the antibiotics aren't really getting rid of the swelling or pain near my ear. And that the tingly prickly electric-shocky things are still happening. And the pain is getting worse. And I feel generally miserable and, frankly, downright pissy. I guess there are different manifestations of shingles. This just might not be your classic shingle variety. In all honesty, I have to say that, if this is as bad as it gets, I'll take it! I've heard about "classic" cases (my Big Sis & cousin both survived them). And I'll take my weird case that seems less severe. But it's possible we haven't hit the climax of this fun little venture.

They've made an appointment with an ear/nose/throat guy tomorrow in hopes that he might have seen something like this and will have more ideas for treatment. Until then, I'm on new antibiotics, an anti-viral and steroids. So far, I feel no different. I'm still irritable, in pain and don't want to do anything but sleep and whine. You can imagine how fun this must be for my hubby! But seriously, I'm not being that bad. I FEEL that bad - inside. I'm trying to keep it there. That's one good thing about locking myself in my office and working.

So we'll see what the ENT dude says tomorrow. And will I feel good enough for my business trip up to NJ & NYC on Monday. OH and a classic crack up about that!! I'm sitting here posting while my work group is on the speaker phone discussing stuff that doesn't involve me. Yes, I'm evil. But earlier, when it was my turn to give a status, they were asking how I'm feeling. Keep in mind, they're all about to meet me face to face for the first time next Tuesday. So my new boss asks, "So are you contagious? I mean...you know...is your FAMILY at risk?" Yah. I'm sure she was asking out of concern for my family! HA! She also told me that next week's meeting is not critical and if I don't feel up to it, we can reschedule. "UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!!"