It has been a very strange few weeks.
Last Monday I felt a slight burning, tingling sensation over my left lip and near my left eye. On Tuesday, a small blemish appeared over my lip. By Wednesday it was significantly larger, but still not too worrisome. On Thursday morning, my whole lip was swollen and more spots were appearing, including a very faint red bump near my eye. At the urgent care center in Cleveland Park, two doctors diagnosed me with shingles. [I'd highly recommend this urgent care center. It's clean, modern and efficient.]
Since then it’s been an exciting ride of doctor visits, pain killers, topical solutions, and antiviral medicine. I’ve done a lot of research and it seemed a pity not to share my discoveries on the blog.
As most of you probably know, shingles is the same virus as chicken pox. Most of us get chicken pox when we’re children, but after we recover the virus never leaves our body. It remains dormant deep inside. For some people, it never comes back. But for others–such as myself–the virus returns when we are adults in the form of shingles. The majority of the time it happens to people over 50, but occasionally it happens to people under 50. It appears I won the lottery.
Unlike chicken pox, which appears as blisters all over the body, shingles usually selects one nerve. The virus travels down that nerve and manifests itself as a rash of blisters in one area. In my case, the virus selected the maxillary nerve on the left side of my face. Yikes.
Maxillary Nerve. Image: Gray's Anatomy/Public domain
Now, if you could see my face (which I will spare you) it would amaze you how accurate the above picture is. The blisters only appear immediately under my left eye and down to my left lip. And only from the side of my nose over to my cheek.
Because shingles in the eye can cause blindness, I visited an opthamologist. Just by looking at me, he was able to confirm that the optic nerve is not involved. He did a number of tests anyway and concluded my eyes are fine.
[As an aside, let me say that Dr. Greer is hands-down the best doctor I've seen in D.C. His small, one-room office in Metro Center is a little strange, but he's incredibly kind and thorough. He called me before and after my appointment to check on me. Eye problems? Go to Dr. Greer. ]
No one knows exactly why we get shingles. Sometimes it happens if your immune system is weakened by fighting another illness. People with cancer and AIDS often get shingles. But sometimes it just happens as a result of stress and anxiety. I don’t remember feeling particularly stressed in the weeks leading up to this, but anxiety is something I’ve had to manage most of my life and it was likely the cause.
Shingles is not contagious to people who have had the chicken pox. One person cannot give another person shingles. However, it is contagious to a person who has not had the chicken pox. In that case, the person with shingles would give the other person chicken pox, not shingles. Wild.
The upside? Well there’s not much of an upside. But, as Patrick pointed out, “at least we’re not in Paris.” And he’s right. A few months ago we’d looked for tickets for this exact time frame.
As time goes on, I’m starting to feel much better and the swelling in my face has gone down. In the meantime, I’m working from home and drinking lots of juice. I like juice, so that part is not so bad.
