Stress

I've told some of you that I'm under a lot of pressure at work at the moment.  I'm pretty stressed, actually.

The stress has surfaced in a more visible and more painful form.

On Sunday, I found a circle of what looked like pimples on my side behind and a little above my armpit.  They felt like pimples--sort of tender.  No big deal.  But because they formed a rough circular shape, I thought they might have been bug bites.

Again, no big deal.  But then they started getting bigger and more inflamed and more sore.  That's fine.  I could deal with that.  But then, today, the pain started feeling deeper.  Kind of like a deep muscle ache.  Now THAT was strange.

I went to my doctor's office and found out that I have shingles.

I had shingles once before.  I was in 7th grade and got shingles on my face.  That was before I knew anything about STD's, so you can imagine how people laughed when I told them that what I had on my face was something that the doctor called "Herpes Zoster."  Yeah.   Nice.  I was the kid in 7th grade that got herpes on his face.  Not that I had any friends anyway... but that certainly didn't help.

Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpocks.  In some people that get chickenpox, some of the virus particles leave the skin blisters and move into the nervous system.  When someone's immune system is worn down or when they're having a lot of stress, the virus can reactivate and move along nerve fibers that extend to the skin.  The result is shingles.

Nowadays, there are antiviral drugs that can help treat shingles.  The antiviral drugs slow down the virus so the body's own processes can hunt them down and kill them.  The body never completely gets rid of the virus, so there's always the risk of future outbreaks.

You've probably seen commercials on television for the antiviral I'm taking: Valtrex.  Yes, it's the drug being marketed to people with genital herpes, which is a different strain of the same virus.  There's no generic, and it's EXPENSIVE.  My 7-day regimen cost $206.49.  That's almost $10/pill!  I'm grateful for health insurance.  I only had to pay my $15 co-pay.

See?  I really AM stressed!