Finally it’s shingles!
The story dates back to that sunday when my wife and I had lunch in Little Tokyo and then visited MOCA in downtown. I felt a little bit of pain on my right thigh when heading back to the parking lot. The pain just got worse after overnight and felt like the skin being burned whenever touching it. Monday afternoon after the routine radiation, I saw the doctor and she asked me to have a MRI on my spine, which was arranged on sunday morning at its earliest. I was suggested to take Tylenol to relieve the pain when needed. Then next day, tuesday, worried about the possibility of getting myasthenia gravis, I went to see another doctor and a ultrasound was conducted there to see if there was blood clot in my thigh since this happened for person undergoing radiation therapy. But nothing was found wrong. I was suggested to take Motrin. And the pain just got more severe and make me sleepless at night. The over-counter Motrin didn’t make sense to me even with the maxium amount. Then another doctor I saw next day after radiation prescribed me stronger Motrin with 800mg ibuprofen and allowed me to take Vicodin, which I was prescribed for severe chest pain a week before my surgery, for the night. I was even trying to take oxycodone, only one pill left from my surgeon’s prescription. Actually some red blister came up on that day and started to become a little bit itchy and painful. My wife and I just thought it as allergy to the gel used in ultrasound, which happened to my wife during her pregnancy. So I just grinned and bore it complaining that diseases just flocked to me one after another just like the saying: when it rains, it pours.
And sunday morning about 40 minutes was spent in the MRI tube listening the noise penetrating your patience even with earplugs. Eager to know what happened on earth, this monday I saw the doctor again and wondered if she got the MRI results. Meanwhile I showed my right thigh and she immediately declined that it was caused by allergy and referred me to a dermatologist in another sunset boulevard location. I went there and the doctor smiled after he took a look at my symptom. He came back with a brochure which reminded me what I saw 2 years ago in another dermatologist’s office when I got some rash in the east coast. This time it’s shingles or herpes zoster, caused by the same virus, varicella zoster virus, causing chickenpox on children. The virus just retreated into the nerve system like spine and could hibernate for decades before its recurrence again when the immune system got weak as people became old, had cancer, or got sick or tired. Shingles usually show up heralding with 1-3 days’ severe pain and following with painful blisters, what exactly happened to me! So it’s the only one. It will disappear by itself just like other herpes and rashes. But if treated with antivirus drug like acyclovir earlier may prevent postherpetic neuralgia. Hope I won’t get that.
During the last year, I’ve been using all kinds of antibiotic medicines: anti-bacteria for pneumonia, anti-virus (this time) for shingles, and anti-fungi cream for my right foot. For a person always believing in simple and natural live, what a depressing year :~