What rhymes with jingles...shingles.

The following post is not for those with weak stomachs.

Last Friday, I woke up to a terrible pain in my leg, right above my knee. I went on with my day hoping it would just go away. By that night I noticed I was favoring the leg and limping a little bit. The pain was still there on Saturday and Allen wanted to take me into the insta-care. I refused and started thinking that it had something to do with my Lupus. I kept alternating from ice to heat, but nothing would take the pain away. The Primary Program was on Sunday and there was no way I was going to miss that. As soon as it was over we took off for the insta-care. I was really worried it was a blood clot, but they did blood-work and confirmed it was not a blood-clot. So, they didn't know what it was and told me to keep heating and icing it. They thought it might be a pulled muscle. The pain continued and finally I called my Internal Medicine doctor on Wednesday, but they couldn't get me in until Friday. That night my back started hurting, like it was getting pinched and I started getting red dots on my thigh. Nope, I didn't pull a muscle. My doctor came in and I told him what was going on and he said "it sounds like you have shingles." Huh? I had no idea what that was, I got into a gown and he inspected them and confirmed that was it. He was surprised I wasn't in that much pain. As I have written before, I have a high tolerance for pain. Allen can squeeze my ears as hard as he can and I don't feel a thing. I think this is Heavenly Father's way of helping me deal with all my sicknesses. Yes, there are a lot of health things wrong with me, but for the most part none of them have limited me from doing things. I can handle all the illnesses as long as I can take care of my family.

This is not my leg, but this is about where my dots first started to appear. I am in this stage right now, the beginning stage. P.s. my legs where about that hairy when I went to the doctors because I was afraid to shave.
This is what I have to look forward to. Luckily it is kept hidden under my clothes. Shingles is not contagious, unless you have never received your chicken pox vaccine. Here are some information about shingles.

So, how do you get shingles? After you have chicken pox, it becomes dormant and hopefully stays that way. It lingers around your spine waiting for your immune system to weaken. Most of the virus' attack people over the age of 60 and since my insides are about that age, or older, I get to experience it now. It finds a nerve and decides to play around with it and make it hurt and eventually become covered with bumps and blisters and sometimes leaves scars for life. So the nerve that runs from my lower spine wraps around my body and then goes along my thigh and up towards my knee. So far I only have bumps around my thigh and not too many coming down towards my knee.

Is shingles contagious? No, not unless you have not received your chicken pox vaccine and then only if my bumps touch a part of you. Seeing as my shingles is on a part of my body that is always covered, I don't see that happening.

How long does it take to get rid of shingles? Shingles usually lasts about 30 days. One week of the pain and then the bumps start and I am not sure when the blisters come about. I think pretty soon though.

My doctor has me taking a medication to help speed up the process and then some pain medicine that doesn't seem to work, but it does make me sleepy. There isn't an anti-biotic for it, it is a virus and has to run it's course.

There you have it.