Shing-ga-la {personal entry}

about 5 days ago i developed a cluster of red spots on my right rib nearing my back. At the time i excused these spots as bug bits, or, worse, an allergic reaction to 'something.' They itched but nothing out of control. Just yesterday i felt a 'lump' in my groin area being a bit uncomfortable i decided to see the school nurse, figuring the spots and the lump are related.

without going too much into detail - the lump reminded me of a muscle knot you sometimes find in a dog -

well, unfortunately, the nurses office was backed up with emergences, so, i had to change plans and come back early tomorrow morning...

let me tell you... your mind does some crazy thinking when you have a lump and red spots on your body-

i woke up this morning at the crack of 8:30am to shuffle my feet (in the rain) to the nurses office. Since this was my first visit i had to answer some basic questions as well as take some simple test, like blood pressure and heart rate. Which was pretty low. Finally i was able to meet a nurse and get to the bottom of the red spots/lump conundrum.

She didn't really give me any kind of direction, i wasn't sure if i was suppose to just drop trou, or lay on this bed which would be kind of awkward since the spots are on my back. So, i sat on the bad and dropped trou. She took one look at them and knew exactly what they were.

"you have herpes"

...

how the hell do i have herpes, i sat there thinking. She then went into a bit more detail. "Herpes Zoster".

...

how the hell do i have herpes zoster, better yet, what IS herpes zoster.

she told me to sit down and she'll bring in some reading so we can talk about it.

hmm

moments later she arrived... and told me "its also called 'shingles'"
great... shingles...
she was a bit surprised i wasn't in more pain, me too, my aunt had the virus and she couldn't move. She also told me best bet would be to just 'wait it out' for another week or so.

Shingles can 'pop-up' due to stress, its the same virus that causes chicken pox, with that, i can now give people who never had chicken pox, chicken pox but not shingles. The lump is a battle between the virus and self. I think. she didn't really talk much about the lump.

so there you have it. my date with zoe aka zoster. For pictures of shingles just do an image search, be warned, they are a bit 'disgusting' so heres some house shingles... bit easier on the eyes...