For more than a year my wife and I have been talking about getting the Shingles Shot. It is an expensive shot but our insurance company will pay for it. Back in the days of consuming paperback westerns I thought of Shingles as being an Old Peoples disease. In part I was right, but I did not understand the route that Shingles takes to put its victims down. If you have had Chicken pots or the chicken pots shot the virus hides itself in the bottom the spine. When it activates it follows the nerves systems and takes similar routes but not always the same one. In my case it went from the center of the chest around the rib cage to the back.
My Father-in –Law came down with it a couple years back on his way to Guam to visit a friend who was headquartered there. He first noticed something was happening when he arrived in Hawaii on the first leg of his journey. When he landed in Guam he went to the VA Clinic for treatment. The Guam VA Clinic refused to treat him. The story being that he needed to return to his local VA Clinic in California for treatment. So he is in the far eastern Pacific Ocean at a clinic that can treat him, but refuses to do so. Calls to Washington D.C. get the response that he needs to go to his California VA Clinic for treatment. The eighty year old vet boards a plane back to Hawaii. Once back in Hawaii he gets treated. In his case the Shingles went down his leg. Two years later he is still having residual effects from the Shingles.
I am twenty years younger than my father-in-law, so I am young and he is old.
About two weeks ago I and Gun Runner got together for breakfast. We had the health food item on the menu, chicken fried steak, eggs, potatoes, eggs, and coffee. Once we were out of the restaurant we continued to chat in the parking lot. I told him I needed to hit the road for home because I had a headache coming on and need to get a couple of pills.
Early the next morning I was woke up by a pain inside the rib cage on the left side. It was like somebody was tearing the meat off the ribs. Shortly the pain went away and there was no shortness of breath. The headache continued the next day, and it became a very serious headache. I called to make a doctor’s appointment but had to wait a couple of days.
I have not been a good boy taking my blood pressure daily. When I did I was shocked how high it was, and felt I needed treatment. The wife took me in town to the emergency room and based on my symptoms they started treating me for a possible heart attack, but also gave me the stroke shot. My blood pressure was 220/190. They quickly brought my blood pressure down, and setup a bunch of heart related test including a chemically induced EKG stress test that made me puke.
But that came after they got me into a room at 0300. At that time the RN noted a small rash on my chest thinking it was poison oak. I told the RN that I have had poison oak numerous times and the blisters on me were different.
Early in the afternoon after all the test and doctor came in from the cardiac unit and told me that my heart, vessels, liver, and kidneys are in good shape and they were releasing me. I need to see my personal physician for the other symptoms. Mine and their thinking was ulcers.
My doctor is off on Wednesdays so I setup a Thursday morning appointment.
Back home the rash on my chest expanded rapidly. The wife calls the doctor’s office and found that another doctor in the practice would see me. Just after that call the neighbor, RN, called to say she was going to be gone a few days. The wife told her I had been in the hospital and about the rash.
The neighbor said that it sounds like Shingles to her.
The doctor visit confirmed that I have Shingles, and a medication was prescribed along with pain pills. I told the doctor I do not like narcotic pain killers. He said that before it was over I would like them. He was right.
The rash turn to blisters, and now the blisters are drying up. My skin has gone from tender to extremely sensitive. I woke up a little after 0200 this morning with my skin screaming. The pain pill was effective and I woke up just after 0500 with scream skin. After 0200 I fell asleep on top of a double ice bag. Ice seems to be very helpful. And I am taking two or three showers a day and applying aloe.
The Shingles Shot is expensive, but covered by many insurance plans. Some County Health Clinics provide the shot at a charge. I know of a number of people who have signed up for the County Shot Clinic (Siskiyou County) in November. A brother told me the shot will be a $175 there and he will have to do the billing back to his insurance company. He is also checking with the VA.
A friends Uncle came down with Shingles last spring and is signed up for the shot clinic. He is still having symptoms. The shot is not 100% effective, but the opinion is that people who have had the shot, and then have an outbreak with lesser symptoms
I have lost the majority of the 2010 deer season, if not all. Even if I get out towards the end my fitness level has hit bottom. I live from deer season to deer season. As far as I know once you have a full blown case there is no getting over it fast. I know that I could not stand a day in the woods with my daypack on my back. I cannot stand a “T” shirt much less a pack.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/shingles/DS00098If this saves one members hunting season it was worth the time to type.
