The Joy Of Shingles (There Is None.)

My face three months after benign bump removed from my jaw.
The long recovery hit my immune system hard.


Shingles Are A Living Hell

  It’s been a bad year for me, or I should say the left side of my face and head. In April, I had the operation to remove a benign bump on the left side of my face, but they had to peel my face back to do it so the nerves wouldn’t be damaged. Then, my face swelled up for three months.

  In August, I began to feel better and my face had pretty much returned to normal. On August 30, I had a headache that wouldn’t go away on the left side of my head and felt like I had a sty forming on my left eye or like I had something under the lid. (I never get headaches and I’ve never had a sty come out .)

  Two days later, my left eyeball was bright red, my left forehead and scalp burned like a real bad sunburn when I touched it, and I had clusters of blisters on my left forehead and all through the left side of my scalp. I got some Murine, but that didn’t help my eye and burned like hell.

  I could have gone to the VA emergency in Cincinnati, but I was afraid they wouldn’t be serious in helping me or they would try to refer me to a clinic days later. I didn’t think my eye could wait that long. My wife called our family doctor and I went the next morning.

  People had only two reactions when they saw my eye: Holy Crap or I’ll pray for you.

  The doctor gave me a steroid shot and antibiotics for seven days three times a day at 8.00 a pill. I also got some eye drops, Tobramycin, in a bottle the size of my thumb for 102.00. Our doctor walked me downstairs to the eye doctor on the first floor and told them I should be seen right away.

  A few hours later, the eye doctor told me I had ulcers on the cornea, but he thought I had gotten there soon enough and the drops and antibiotics would heal them without eye damage. (The eye is the worst place to get shingles because it can lead to severe vision loss and blurring if not treated right away.)

  By the next morning, the blisters had moved down the left side of my nose. I gave thanks that I didn’t have them between my legs, but I was real miserable and afraid I would lose vision in my left eye.

  The drops and shot and anti-biotics started to work miracles in a few days. The bright red eye returned to normal in a few days, but my eye swelled and turned purple and my vision is still not 100% because I still have a die-hard lesion on the tip of my eyelid.

  Within a week, scabs formed, most of which were in my scalp and on my forehead. The burning was slowly replaced by a stinging itch and the feel of things like spiders crawling in my scalp and down my forehead. Shingles also sucks all the energy out of you. I didn’t feel like doing anything and didn’t have much interest in anything.

  Me and my wife sing big band music. We had a gig about seven days into my Shingle attack while they were full blown. I took Hydrocodone for pain. She did a great makeup job on my face, and I wore sunglasses to conceal my left eye, which now looked like I had been punched. I wore my Frank Sinatra hat. I made it through the gig without a problem.

  The non-stop dull headache went away after a few weeks. By week four, all the lesions were gone except for the one on the tip of my eyelid. I still had the tormenting crawling sensation on my forehead and scalp. I went back to the eye doctor. He told me the eye was healed without damage but my vision would be slightly off as long as the eyelid was still involved. He also said that Shingles on the head and scalp was some of the most difficult to get rid of and could linger for a long time no matter what medicine a person takes. I didn’t like hearing that.

  As I write this, I’m into week five. The constant crawling itch is still with me, and my left eyelid still has an active redness, slight swelling, and is sore. I wouldn’t wish this stuff on my worst enemy. The scalp wasn’t all that bad unless I touched it or washed my hair. Once it started healing and the itching began, then it got bad. The burning is pretty much gone except for one segment of my forehead.

  Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. If you had chickenpox, you have the virus in you, looking for a chance to come back out. It is not contagious, but people often think it is, like they do poison oak or ivy since the blisters all look about the same.

  They say by age 80 about 90% of the population will get Shingles. The vaccine can slow it down, but is no guarantee you won’t get it eventually. It is fairly rare on the face, which is why I got it there because I can’t never get things in a normal way.

  I believe the operation in April and the long recovery led to my immune system becoming weak enough so that the Shingles came out. I have asked several doctors if I could get it again. Some say yes, others say no one knows for sure and that it’s different on everyone. I haven’t heard anyone say that I couldn’t get it again. I don’t want it again.

  If you have had Shingles, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, and you start breaking out without obvious reason in a pattern on one side of you body...see a doctor right away. Shots and meds can shorten the duration, but it will still have to run its course. In some people that can be months or even up to a year. If you get it in your eye, see a doctor right away because you can permanently damage your vision if Shingles goes untreated in the eye. I believe the long recovery caused the Shingle outbreak because of my weakened immune system.

  Shingles is some cruel stuff.