Well lah-di-fuckin'-dah.... I don't have a nasty staph infection.

[MonkeyFunk]

I have shingles! Wheee!!

[EstimatedProphet]

1. Fun

[LeftyFingerPop]

2. Look into a drug called...

Lyrica.

And best wishes to you MonkeyFunk.

[MonkeyFunk]

4. well

I'm on acyclovir 5x/day, eyedrops 8x/day, and an eye ointment that goes in at night.

[SPKrazy]

8. Good...

I just posted downthread about the antiviral drugs and the eyedrops since it is on your face :cry:

patience, that just sucks d00d

[MonkeyFunk]

12. well I look like a fucking monster

but the bf still seems to love me. He's cleaning my bathtub as I type.

he's so good to me.

[Suich]

3. Uh-oh!

I'm really sorry! I hope you have a mild case.........if there is such a thing.

[Roon]

5. Yikes!

I had that on my torso when I was 22. Very painful. Got good drugs though.

[SPKrazy]

6. Oh Shit Monkey Funk!

Been there Done that...

no fun

get some antiviral stuff

sheesh

they say it isn't contagious, here's my story: I was facilitating a cancer support group and a woman came to the group and she had shingles. A week later I had them. Maybe a coincidence, they say it has to be, but damn, what a coincidence.

Painful stuff and if it is on your face be very certain that you get treatment it can damage your vision and leave nerves damaged as well.

:pals:

sorry man, that sucks

[MonkeyFunk]

10. thanks

yes, i'm already on anti-virals, and have eyedrops and an eye cream, and I see an ophthalmologist tomorrow.

[QMPMom]

24. Shingles cannot be passed from one person to another. However,

if a person that has not had chicken pox (varicella zoster) comes into contact with a person in the blister phase of shingles (herpes zoster), the person that has not had chicken pox will most likely develop chicken pox. The will not develop shingles. You cannot develop shingles unless you have had chicken pox in the past. The varicella zoster virus lies dormant and resurfaces later, if a person is unlucky, as shingles.

If you are in the blister/contagious stage, stay away from any pregnant women. It can be dangerous for her and/or the baby, depending on her immune status.

I wrote a very long paper on this topic once....

[MonkeyFunk]

27. yes

we looked that up because we both concerned about passing to my partner. But he's safe.

[QMPMom]

33. I hope you feel better soon.

[PeaceNikki]

7. Wow, someone very close to me has shingles now, too.

:(

I know it hurts a lot. Hope you feel better soon.

[lost-in-nj]

9. I am so sorry

my brother had this....

I know it hurts

:hug: :hug:

lost

[MonkeyFunk]

11. Thanks

at least now i can handle the vicodin. They had me superstrong atibiotics for two days, and I was so nauseous, I couldn't handle the vicodin.

hopefully the antiviral won't mess me up as badly.

[RiffRandell]

13. Did I not say it sounds like shingles?

Fuck, I'm so sorry-----keep taking the meds and I'm stressing big time as Mike's surgery is tomorrow.

[MonkeyFunk]

15. Yep!

The first doc didn't see it because the full outbreak hadn't occurred. I just two or three lesions near the center of my face. but when I went back today, the entire left side of my face and scalp is broken out, and nothing on the right side, so he said that's a classic sign of shingles - it goes along the nerve, and I guess we have two separate nerve groups on the left and right sides of our face.

I'll be thinking about you and your husband tomorrow - please let us know how it goes.

[RiffRandell]

20. Thanks, and I will let you know. n/t

[Left Is Write]

14. Oh dear.

Neither condition sounds very good. I hope you get better soon!

[pitohui]

16. yikes get well soon

one of my friends had it recently and i was pleasantly surprised at how quickly she recovered w. the new medications

be well!!!!

her shingles was on her chest and she went to the emergency room thinking she was having a heart attack! this is serious pain

[MonkeyFunk]

18. ah, that's nice to hear

thanks, pitohui.

[Omphaloskepsis]

17. Damn.. Good luck..

Get better soon.

[Der Blaue Engel]

19. Oh, dear. Mr. Engel had that recently.

:scared:

I'm glad you're getting treated. Mr. E. waited too long, and ended up with what his doctor says was the worst case he'd ever seen. He had it in his sciatic nerve, and is now disabled with post-herpetic neuralgia, going on five months. Again, the doc says he's only seen one other person with such a bad case of post-herpetic neuralgia, and that one lasted a year.

I read somewhere that more people are getting shingles now because we aren't getting periodically re-exposed to chicken pox anymore, since the advent of the vaccine in the 90s.

[greatauntoftriplets]

21. I have never quite understood shingles....

except that it is one nasty-ass illness. Good luck and great news that you now have a correct diagnosis and have the drugs to get you on the mend.

[MonkeyFunk]

22. well, from what I've read...

up to half of people will get it at some point.

If you've ever had chicken pox, you're susceptible. The virus remains dormant in your spinal chord, until something sets it off - who knows what? Then the virus follows a nerve path out to the skin. then ugly lesions go out from the nerve to the surface of the skin.

It's ugly, uncomfortable, painful and pretty debilitating. I am entirely fatigued and have no appetite whatsoever. I ate more today than in the past 4 days - I had one stick pretzel and three cherries, and a half a can of ginger ale.

[greatauntoftriplets]

25. I had an extremely minor case of chicken pox....

at the age of six months. My sister got it in kindergarten and passed it on to me. Also to my mother, who was as sick as a dog with it.

Fortunately, my aunt (mother's sister) came to take care of us. I don't remember at all.

I also barely had the measles and the mumps. In fact, the pediatrician never quite commmited to diagnosing me with the mumps. But I must have had them, since (in those days, you either got them soomer or later) my mother always sent me to play with kids in the neighorhod who had the mumps. She figured I needed to get them sooner vs. later. I never caught them, so the undiagnosed case must have been them.

Anyway, I have digressed. I guess that I could contract shingles. Which I would prefer not to do.

I hope that you start feeling better soon.

[yellowdogintexas]

44. I had a round of shingles about 5 years ago..I thought MINE was a kidney stone

it really made my right kidney hurt, which is the one that had the stone way back when.

Funny how you kind of forget how childbirth feels but you never forget how a kidney stone feels.

[datasuspect]

23. i bet you are relieved!

man i was worried about you for a minute. that staph is some nasty ass motherfucking shit.

[MonkeyFunk]

28. well

the doc didn't seem to think shingles was a preferable diagnosis - especially cuzit seems to be in my eye. But I feel relieved,because at least i know it's treatable and will run its course.

[madrchsod]

26. i just went through two weeks of staph infection that i got

during a hospital operation....guess who`s never going to go to that hospital again-my doctor.. when i have to get the procedure repaired he won`t do it at that hospital again...

shingles hurt.....

[KitchenWitch]

29. YEARRRGH!

:hug:

[hfojvt]

30. shingles aren't so bad

They work better than rolled roofing and aren't as nasty as tar or nearly as expensive as rubber roofs.

[MonkeyFunk]

32. Ya know...

if the whole left side of my head wasn't covered with burning lesions, I didn't had excruciating nerve pain and constant nausea from the medications and no risk of losing my left eye, I would enjoy just such a childish joke.

[hfojvt]

38. what is the opposite of savoir-faire?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r1ATSxbGDw


savoir-faire - "knowledge of just what to do in any situation"

[MonkeyFunk]

41. Next time please let me know

when you're in horrible pain and discomfort, so I can crack wise about it.

[hfojvt]

42. "I'd like to say a word in her behalf. Maria

makes me laugh."

I tried to make a funny. Funny makes people laugh. Laughter is good for you, even when you are in pain. The joke was not meant to minimize your pain. The joke said something outrageously stupid and lampoons me as somebody too stupid to know what you are talking about.

Apparently, as is common, my comic timing stinks. Whatever the opposite of savoir-faire is, I seem to have it. The ability to do or say the wrong thing in almost any situation.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry that my attept failed and back-fired. I'm sorry that there are horrible diseases and accidents and that you are inflicted by one.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

31. Oh no!

I'm so sorry! :hug::hug::hug:
I hope it's over soon...

[ThomCat]

34. I hope the meds they put you on

handle that quickly and thoroughly. :hug:

[Holly_Hobby]

35. I believe Lyrica or Neurontin will help you

I'm on Lyrica for nerve pain and it's the ONLY med that works. Good luck.

[hedgehog]

36. Be very careful with your eyes.

I hope this clears soon for you.

[MonkeyFunk]

37. thanks

just back from the ophalmalogist. I'm on anti-viral eyedrops and antibacterial ointment, but until all the swelling subsides, he can't do much to treat the eye yet (which entails steroids).

[flvegan]

39. It would seem that, considering, that's "good" news

I mean, having shingles probably sucks in a huge way, but it's better than what it COULD have been.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

40. hugs to you. hope you get better soon

:hug:

[bigwillq]

43. Hope you feel better soon.

Wishing you a speedy recovery. :)