Rash is minor in light of world problems

I had been referring to the rash on my face as the Creeping Crud; or maybe leprosy so when doc said it was shingles my first thought was, gee, now I don't have to carry a bell and yell "Unclean!" wherever I go. My second thought was, "Shingles? Does my face look like a roof? Are they asphalt or slate shingles or something else?"

It started as a tiny rash. We had been cleaning out bushes on the side of the driveway way back in November and even though I was very careful I thought that I had perhaps gotten poison ivy on my gloves and then brushed my hair out of my face. The rash looked something like poison ivy but it didn't itch. As a matter of fact it didn't do anything but look ugly and spread.

So when I went to the doc for another matter I asked him about the rash. That's when he told me I had shingles.

I knew that shingles was caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. I knew that since I had chickenpox as a child I was at risk. I had heard that it doesn't go away for a very long time. I had heard that it is very painful.

Since the rash on my face didn't hurt or itch I never even considered that it might be shingles. Now I have one of the estimated 1 million cases of shingles that occur in the United States every year. Almost half of those cases occur in adults 60 years of age or older. For the record I am NOT over 60 years of age.

Symptoms that I had never heard of include: fever for a couple of (generally four to five) days with persistent headache (nope); sudden decline in energy level (it's January - there is no energy level); problems with digestive system, specifically with stomach (nope, don't have that); sudden chills (now, how is one to tell if one is chilled this time of year?) and small painful blisters (no pain). No wonder shingles never crossed my mind. Thank goodness doctors know more than I do.

Now I have a cream to apply to my face. I have no idea how long this will take to clear up or if the rash will reappear somewhere else on my body.

Potential complications that can be caused by shingles include: scarring; bacterial skin infections; decrease or loss of vision or hearing (yikes, didn't know about that one); paralysis on one side of the face (another scary one); muscle weakness; allodynia (pain from a source that would not normally cause pain - such as pain from a slight breeze over the skin or the touch of clothing on the skin) or long-term nerve pain. None of that sounds the least bit appealing. I will follow my doctor's orders to the letter in hopes that I won't have to deal with anything in this paragraph.

As unsettling as all this is for me, my problems are dwarfed by those of other people. When I think of the Haiti earthquake and all those victims I feel powerless to do anything to help. Many people around the world have far, far worse problems than a little rash on the face. Yet, I can do nothing to alleviate their suffering. All I can do is smear cream on my ugly rash and pray for those less fortunate.

May all your troubles be a simple as mine are.[[In-content Ad]]