I'm Burning...

though not literally. This is my second day away from the office, although I am still working from time to time. Why? Cos I got the shingles. Herpes Zoster if you wanna be more specific. Although I still cringe at the very name of my ailment, once you get to learn more about it, there's nothing really worth cringing about it except the pain of course. But that's another story.

Shingles, according to Wikipedia, is a viral disease characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters in a limited area on one side of the body, often in a stripe. The initial infection with varicella zoster virus (VZV) causes the acute (short-lived) illness chickenpox, and generally occurs in children and young people. Once an episode of chickenpox has resolved, the virus is not eliminated from the body but can go on to cause shingles—an illness with very different symptoms—often many years after the initial infection.

Just to be clear: The herpes virus that causes shingles and chickenpox is not the same as the herpes virus that causes genital herpes (which can be sexually transmitted) and herpes mouth sores. Shingles is medically termed Herpes zoster.

Oh dear.

How I got this is beyond my comprehension. The doc says i probably got it from someone who has it already and it didn't help at all that I had a weak immune system at the time of contact. So whoever gave this to me, well, I got it.

Having shingles is NO FUN AT ALL. The blisters are icky to look at, it's itchy, painful. the throbbing kind. It's like each blister's screaming and mocking at me and I can feel all of them, all at the same time. I'm sure I sound shit and nuts by saying this but it is what I feel. And it also doesn't help that i can't go out much, mingle with people especially friends and the biggest disappointment of them all is that I can't go mountain climbing na hinintay ko lang naman at pinaghandaan ng isang taon. Oh well. I want to try to believe to whoever said that "If God closes a door, He's probably opening a window in return". Of what view that window is gonna offer me, I'm still about to find out.

Some observations: this sickness is not cheap. If you want to get better fast, you'll gonna need a lot of moolah. Believe me. It is still kinda rare. and there are still some unanswered questions with regards on how the virus becomes dormant all these years and then just breakout all of a sudden. And when the book says that you'll be experiencing severe pain and burning, believe that it is indeed SEVERE PAIN AND BURNING.

Sometimes I'd like to believe that due to the humongous amount of meds that I've already taken, my brain is failing me already and I think I'm having lapses from time to time. i wish and hope to get better soon. Please.... :(