Shingles and NYC

Summer's off to a whiz-bang here! 

Shannon finished up her freshman year of high school with straight A's.  So proud of that girl! She went on an impromptu 4-day camping trip with her BFF, to kick her summer off right!

I've been noticing over the past 2 weeks that my arm was extremely itchy, and that my upper back/shoulder blade area was sore...like a sunburn.  My underarm ached.  Those symptoms didn't match any ailment that I knew of, so I just kept an eye on them, and tried to drink a lot of water in case my glands (underarm) were swollen, etc.  Saturday morning I woke up with a line of bug bites on my arm.  Patrick looked at them, and agreed that they were probably spider bites.  Sunday morning, my bites were more "clustered" looking, and I concluded that it must be poison ivy (I've never had poison ivy, so I was just guessing).  I felt better, because I assumed this explained my weird symptoms.

I was talking to a friend of mine about my "poison ivy," and she said that whenever she'd had poison ivy, it DIDN'T feel like what I was describing.  I did a little googling, and began to notice a trend of seeing Shingles mentioned.  Finally, I searched Shingles, and lo and behold, the description fit perfectly.  Argh.

I went to the doctor on Monday morning, and she confirmed it.  I've got anti-viral meds, and medicine to help with the nerve pain...but to be honest, I'm pretty miserable.  I feel generally ill, and my whole right upper body/arm feels like it is simultaneously being stung by fire ants, badly sunburned, and very deeply bruised. My arm is still developing bumps; they haven't blistered yet. Funzie! (My parents live with us, and have both had the Shingles vaccine, in case anyone remembers that, and wonders.)


While all of this has been happening, there has been other excitement in the house, too!  We've been preparing Shannon for her trip to NYC!!! For the past two years, her Girl Scout trip has been saving and planning this trip, and it's finally here!  She spent Monday night at her leader's house, and they caught an early morning flight on Tuesday.  She texted me a few pictures yesterday, and all I can say is that she has perma-grin!  My girl is in heaven, and I couldn't be happier for her.  It's a very nice distraction from my dumb arm.