What can I say about a week spent almost entirely alone?  Not much.

I can assure everyone that shingles is an extremely annoying problem, and I didn't even have a very bad case.  If I hadn't seen a doctor, I wouldn't have even ever realized that it was something to be concerned about, and if it hadn't been on my face, I could have been at work.  I didn't feel awful, but I didn't feel really good, either, and I have had a headache for over a week now, and the rash was extremely itchy.  Other people I talked to have had a far worse experience.  There is a vaccine for this, I would totally recommend it.  The vaccine is expensive, but so is the medicine once you have shingles. If you can avoid this, do it!

Barring the vaccine, I did discover something to help the itchiness.  Wine compresses helped immensely, and once I started using the wine compresses, the rashes healed faster, too.  So, if you are unfortunate enough to get shingles, remember this...soak some paper towels in wine and just hold them on the rash for awhile.  You will thank me.  Also, get yourself some olive leaf extract to supplement the antivirals.  Once I got these, things cleared up a lot faster.  Unfortunately, I didn't get the olive leaf extract until a week into it.  Olive leaf extract, by the way, is a dietary supplement in a capsule form.  I found it at an Amish store near my house, Walgreens had no idea what I was asking for.

So, I was restricted from work for a full week.  I discovered that an unexpected week off of work is not nearly as fun as you might think- since I couldn't go anywhere or do anything, and hadn't really planned for it.  I missed seeing people and doing things.  If I had felt like writing, it would have been a good time to do quite a bit of it.  Still feeling uninspired, though, and the headache didn't help.  So I didn't do any writing at all, and haven't done any for a long time.  I have not done well at all with that goal.

You might also think I would have taken advantage of the time to get in a lot of walking. That also didn't happen.  I found out the hard way that the sun didn't help the rash and aggravated the headache, so I only walked in the evening after the sun went down a little.  I also ended up drinking a lot of soda, at least in the beginning, because it felt good in my throat, and it helped the headache a little and helped a little with the fatigue.  

So, I did pretty bad with my goals, and kind of spent the last week feeling sorry for myself.  Then I would remember the Stockingers and what they have gone through this week.  And another friend of mine is dealing with a major illness in her dog (and her dog is not doing well at all), and I remind myself that being bored and itchy is really not that bad.  I will go back to work tomorrow and life will be essentially back to normal. I really do have a lot to be thankful for.  

Until next week.

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