The Pecan Park Eagle

“It ain’t pretty when it comes out.
~ Terry Bradshaw ~
Talking about Shingles in that public service clip he does about the disease.

This morning I learned, or had confirmed at the Urgent Care Clinic, that I do, indeed, now have Shingles.  It started innocently enough in my office last Wednesday when I suddenly caught a sudden sharp pain on the right side of my face, near my eye. The sensation was a cross between a bee sting and a high and tight pitch from Don Drysdale. It hurt bad, but there was no explanation for it. It got a little better, but the stinging sensation could be re-initiated if I put even minor pressure on the area near my right eye.

I let it go. Hoping the thing would just go away. I was scheduled for a colonoscopy on Friday and didn’t want to have to cancel that unpleasant, but necessary once-a-decade spot check to another time.

Thursday and Friday came and went. I got through the preparation and actual procedure of the colonoscopy and passed it with flying colors for someone my age as a life-long carnivorous male with the usual advice: Eat more fiber.

I also noticed that the pain in my head now seemed to be spreading up to my scalp – and that the area around my right eye was slightly swollen. I also was developing a dull headache that Tylenol could nothing to ease. By Saturday night the swelling in my right eye was increasing, as was the intensity of the pain and area of coverage. It now went all the way beneath my hairline on the right side too. It was too late to see my own doctor and I didn’t want t the cost and all night wait of a hospital emergency room, so my wife and I decided I would go to the nearby “urgent care” clinic on I-10 near Dairy Ashford. By the time I awoke today, my right eye was totally shut. I had to really work on cleaning it to get to open to a squinting level.

The experienced physician at Advanced Medical Specialists confirmed our diagnosis. It was Shingles. – I got Shingles – in spite of the fact that I took the Shingles vaccine last spring. For those of you who don’t know, Shingles is a viral disease that only happens to adults who once suffered from Chicken Pox as children. The virus that later comes out as Shingles lies dormant in the body from the time a person had the chicken ox s a child. I was one of those kids, as was my brother and sister, mother and father. I am the only one yet to contract Shingles. And, not just by the way, I am also the only one in my biological family to ever have taken the Shingles vaccine.

The doctor that examined me today was very candid when I asked him: “Could I have gotten Shingles from taking the vaccine?” “That is possible,” he said, but he added that causation cannot be specifically proven. Weakness in one’s immune system, aging resistance factors, and stress are considered major to causation.

My specialist today said that I need to see my ophthalmologist, ASAP, because of the potential damage this thing could do to my right eye. I’ll follow up on that one tomorrow, as well as check in with my system’s primary physician. I’ve been given a powerful anti-viral medication. to start things. And we will go from there.

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Correction: Thank you, Cliff Blau for your dedication to accuracy in matters of baseball and health. I’m so accustomed to taking anti-biotics  because of my history with Endocarditis that I misspoke. Yes, I am taking an anti-viral medication. and have now corrected that statement in the previous paragraph, thanks to you.

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August is now going to be recovery time for me. Until I get my strength back and am certain that I cannot be a Shingles carrier to anyone who had chicken pox earlier in life. (Again, I am not a contagion threat to anyone who did not have chicken pox earlier), I will avoid social and business contact altogether until my doctors clear me. Stay tuned.

I will continue to write from home and try to fan the wings of The Pecan Park Eagle, as best I able, with stories and news that is, at least, human virus free – starting with the little diddy I’m about to compose as my parody statement on  “Jingle Bells” as my comment on today’s close-to-home reinforcement of one of life’s greatest lessons: “The older you get, the more you realize – that in life – it’s always something!”

Shingle Cells,

Shingle Cells,

Resting in my brain.

They ain’t so pretty when they come out,

So don’t you bother to complain.

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“What a revoltin’ development this is!”
~ William Bendix as Chester Riley ~
In TV’s “Life of Riley Show”
Circa 1952-54