I can't believe we are twenty one days into 2021 already. Since the last time I was here, a few events have occurred at Clan Martin, so let's get going. (Joining up with Kelly and friends for Seven Quick Takes Friday)
1)
I got shingles.
At 41 ripe old years of age.
It started two weeks ago, on a Thursday night, when my neck began aching as if I pulled a muscle. I had completed a difficult Insanity wourkout class that night, so I figured I just hurt my neck during that. The pain got worse and worse, and by Saturday night, I was in such agony that I didn't sleep a wink. On Sunday morning, I made an appointment at Urgent Care to see what was wrong. My appointment wasn't until the afternoon, and I basically laid in bed with a heating pad on my neck in pain. The NP at Urgent Care diagnosed me with a strained trapezius muscle and told me to take Ibuprofen. I was in such pain that my blood pressure was sky high and I couldn't move my head and felt like I might die from the pain. I went home and started taking Ibuprofen, which helped not one bit and cried to Phil that this had to be something worse than a strained muscle. I didn't sleep again on Sunday night, and by Monday morning I was a mess. I had a "pimple" behind my left ear that I had noticed on Saturday, and by Monday it looked like there were two tiny blisters next to it. I had Phil look at it and take a photo and he said it looked like a bite. I freaked out thinking some crazy spider bit me and was causing all of this neck pain, so I texted it to my sister (a dermatologist) and explained the pain.
She wrote back "I think you have shingles".
I freaked out even more and she called me to say it sounded like shingles and that I needed to go to the doctor right away to start the anti-viral medicine. I called the doctor's office, who said my doc was booked all day until 7pm but that they would send him a message. I told them to make sure they said that my sister had diagnosed me with shingles. The nurse called back right away and said my doctor had called in the anti-viral meds and would teleconference me at 7pm. Gotta love a good doctor! By the time I spoke with him that evening, the pain had morphed into a shooting pain to my ear, a throbbing pain in the back of my head, and a burning sensation from my ear down to my shoulder. It was shingles. He prescribed a painkiller to help, and I was on so many medications for the next seven days yet still in tons of pain. Shingles is no joke! I am lucky that I started the anti-virals so quicly because I only ended up with a few blistery type spots and the rest of the rash was flat and red. My ear was a disaster, red, swollen, infected, and painful. After two weeks, I am still not normal. The skin all over the left side of my scalp, neck, and ear is burning and painful and sleep is still hard to come by.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9KECkDvi2SxzLxPwDvN0OlejZrXT5xjBMHZqGQ-874F7YHzsEJ6GKn-MK6stGYq2ruIZxdCno7RfSdZWDuM0k3_CtEqHMWtpe3Lq1CnRxPB77HKfkU7Q_EDYyoV23VGDGqsuUyozvNIya/w640-h426/IMG_5791.JPG) |
Side Note: I actually babysat for Bob Villa's daughter a few times when I was a teen |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitp5mDRiT-wJxUOPDn5-Snr1NmDxV5aplvmZaY6jjbs6TcSLb_GIH9uewYhvfirR7wJtnmJnpsLurs6Gzrq0Abonripa4io9NAPjkw8_HDbQlThxPHibsPsNZ5PWAl3uIFCPZcC8REL6Tb/w640-h426/IMG_5795.JPG) |
That's the truth |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Jr7ZxH4r9Sv0DDDcW30W-k4h3ezYNutA6gNvIIw25JCCaJ0b8jN0SQsR77477zQSCpshUqj_U3WYkam7GukbNt_ZeAod2pjJsWst7oQydDOsjYC05BRcdvwtNQWGuF-4icGMBZq5EC6N/w264-h640/IMG_5805.jpg) |
This was when the spots started appearing - I'll spare you any grosser photos. |