Shingles

On January 1st I woke up to a little patch of bumps that itched on my butt cheek.  I chalked it up to poison ivy even though I hadn't had my bare butt out in the woods lately I really had no other idea what it could have been.  I reasoned that the hotness of the bonfire we were at on New Year's Eve made the dormant ivy come forward....sounded good to me.  

It continued to itch and get progressively redder so I started applying my poison ivy cream....it didn't work!  At about a week and half into my "poison ivy" I made an appointment in town with a nurse practitioner to get something a bit more heavy duty and see if maybe this wasn't poison ivy.  She looked me over and said that it was NOT poison ivy but just a histamine rash on my skin and we as humans sometimes get these things for no apparent reason it is just bacteria and fungus that grows on our skin and gets nasty.  

Well that sounds horrible but I left feeling completely dirty and glad to hopefully quit itching my butt.  

Another week passed and my itch had only gotten REDDER and spread into a larger spot.  I called the nurse back and told her what was going on...I'm not getting any better and becoming more miserable by the second. She prescribed me a different yet stronger cream.  I searched on the good ole Internet what the cream was for, since I hadn't heard of it, and come to find out it is used for yeast....

That got me to thinking and thoroughly convinced that I had an overgrowth of yeast on my skin due to my birth control!  

Paging Dr. Megan!  

After my 3rd week of having this and  a week of using my yeast cream I now had 3 patches of "poison ivy turned yeast overgrowth" on my butt.  

I'm crying because I'm so miserable, my undergarments stick to my whatever I have on and make me bleed, it hurts to sit, sleep, stand up... you name it.  

I don't even have a family doctor because I'm not ever sick and I'm sure as hell not giving Mrs. Nurse Practitioner a THIRD shot at fixing my dear butt cheek so I go straight to the top.  

DR. MCKELLAR the man who birthed me!  LOL lets say delivered me.  

He will definitely fix my "overgrowth of yeast" I have and keep it from spreading further on my butt cheek.  He gets me in quickly and I go through the whole shenanigan of creams and poison ivy turned yeast and 2 visits to the nurse practitioner and still no relief.  

He listens intently only to take one peak at my butt cheek and blurt out 

"You have the shingles" 

Like it was nothing out of the ordinary and no big deal!  

I get excited quickly...."but wait are you sure I just KNEW it was yeast and I thought only old people get shingles!"  

Well no come to find out young overly stressed out people who just left their Accounting position and spent 2 months training a new employee to go work for her boyfriend at his family business also get the shingles.  

He gave me herpes medication and topical cream! Shingles are a family member of the chicken pox family which are also herpes.   BOY I was so relieved to not only be properly diagnosed but to get medicine that would keep any more shingles from popping up.  

See the ones that had already started down my nerve line couldn't be helped.  Shingles is a virus and my body would need to build up it's antibodies and take care of the internal bug itself and the external ones would heal as this happened.  The medicine would prevent future "outbreaks".  

I left the office stunned that I HAD THE SHINGLES. My family was stunned as well.  I was sure to ask Dr. McKellar that if I hadn't come to the doctor how long would I have suffered and he said about 6-8 weeks is how long the body takes to build it's antibodies and then they would have started to heal.  

Well folks from start to when they finally started to heal and not bleed and itch/hurt with pain was 

6 weeks!  

Shingles are no joke.  

I couldn't imagine if I wasn't in as good as health because that only makes them worse.  I also was told that I had them in a "good" place as most people have them across their back and even down the side of their face.  YIKES!  I still sport 3 scar patches from my shingles and I think they will probably fade away in the next few years but no time soon, I'm glad my bathing suit covers the majority.  

Things to know about shingles:

* Shingles are brought out mainly by low immune systems and stress

* They follow main nerve lines that is why they are only on one side of your body (one side of your spine)

*  Seeing that the outbreak follows one main nerve line is also the reason that they shingles show up in a line or row

* Dont' scratch not only will it cause more itching but the nerve is aggravated and it will hurt miserably and make other places itch...almost like you have allergies

*  The MAIN thing to know about shingles is just pray you never get them!