I know this is going to get me some weird blog searches, but here goes…
The day after we returned from our recent trip, I noticed a weird little something on my side. I showed it to Donn. Together, we discussed what it could possibly be. It was red, and looked rather as if a mosquito had gotten trapped between the folds of my shirt and had bitten frantically about 25 times in a small area. But that’s not logical. Any mosquito worth her salt, er, blood, would have grimly hung on until she exploded, and I would have had one huge welt instead of many.
It was gross, it was itchy, but it hurt. It burned, actually. It was painful to touch, and my whole side hurt, too. It grew to be a sort of welt, about the size of Donn’s two middle fingers, with about 35-40 individual sores.
Being me, I thought about going to the dr, but what with one thing and another (twins’ birthday, house guests, etc) I didn’t. Didn’t want to do anything rash. It was probably some weird sand flea bite or something, I reasoned, from sleeping in the sand, or maybe some weird plant I rubbed against while dune-sliding on our trip. Days passed. The little spots turned into blisters, and began to pop. My side still really hurt.
Last Saturday (12 days into it), I showed it to a friend who’s a nurse, who was here dropping off her son to get a ride to the beach. “That looks like shingles!” she exclaimed! So, that night, I showed it to our house guest, who is also a nurse. “That looks like shingles!” he said.
We looked up shingles on the net. It turns out that it’s an old person’s disease. The article just kept rubbing it in; “high rates among the elderly,” “advancing age,” “age-related.” I had all the symptoms, and the picture looked like what I had.
Ok I get the message. I’m old now. I didn’t think I was that old though. Aren’t you as young as you feel? More than a little depressed, I went to bed.
Next day, Sunday, I decided to talk to the doctor about it. There’s a Canadian dr here who works for the same NGO we do, and operates a clinic in a poor area of town. He came over to the house in the afternoon, had a cup of coffee, and gave his verdict. Yes, it did look like a mild case of shingles. But, I was too young to be the classic case. (I nearly kissed him in gratitude) Although I had chicken pox as a child, my immune system should be normal now. It was probably a worm, he said, and called it Creeping Eruption, which is a cool name you have to admit. Much better than shingles. We would treat for worms, and if that didn’t help, then we would do blood work to see why my immune system was compromised. Scary words like diabetes and HIV tripped off his tongue.
So I found myself in the unlikely situation of hoping I had worms.
I took a course of Vermox, and it’s much better this week, although still itchy. Presumably that is from the dead worms decomposing? Hope so! I meant to show it to him again today but I forgot. I suppose I could go to the clinic, but what with traffic the way it is, and it always takes so long, etc. Besides, it’s almost gone.
Still itchy though.
12 comments
March 18, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Rebecca
Worms! My dad and I were just talking about ringworm this morning – living in a rural area comes with some parasitic risks, too.
March 19, 2007 at 12:14 am
Lonie Polony
Mystery conditions can be very worrying. Hope you find out conclusively what it is and recover fully!
March 19, 2007 at 1:11 am
Kris
Why do I suddenly have the song what is it, Fried Worms (?) going through my head.
You know….. long skinny slimy ones, short fat juicy ones…….
p.s. You have inspired me. 🙂
March 19, 2007 at 2:34 am
suz elliott
Take care of yourself!..hope you get all better soon!
March 19, 2007 at 4:43 am
LIB
I had shingles about 10 years ago. And I wasn’t that old then. When you said “rash” and “hurts” I immediately thought Shingles. They don’t have a treatment for shingles (or they didn’t 10 years ago), they just treat the symptoms. But, treat the symptoms, cuz they’re yucky.
March 19, 2007 at 5:24 am
bek
Ha!! I had shingles for the first time when I was 25! I know lots of people that get them young. If you have had the chicken pox the virus lives in your spinal column. You can get them anytime (but they are usually brought on by stress…mine were) You tend to get them on the sides, back and chest. The good news is that when you are young, they go away. Sometimes old people have them for the rest of their lives…. stinky huh?
They do hurt like the dickens and they itch. It is like having a sore on your nerve endings, because that is WHAT IT IS!! The itching should stop soon and the red dots will go away eventually. I think it took me a few weeks.
They still don’t have a cure, but take care of yourself. Poor Nomads!!
March 19, 2007 at 6:29 am
Michelle
If it makes you feel better my little sister when she was a kid had a similar thing that wasn’t exactly shingles but a related thing. I’ve heard shingles is horribly uncomfortable. Hope you get it fixed soon 🙂
March 19, 2007 at 8:00 am
Kelley
Oh no! I feel your pain…itch?! I was eventually (I didn’t go to the doctor either) diagnosed with shingles AFTER my daughter got chicken pox — they’re related. This was just two months after we returned home from China where we adopted her. Yikes! I hope you’re feeling better soon!
March 19, 2007 at 10:04 am
Author Mom DogNut
With all the odd food (to an American) you’ve been served in less than clean conditions, my vote goes to some sort of parasite.
March 21, 2007 at 4:31 pm
cinnamon gurl
Ok… first – loved the pun: Didn’t want to do anything rash… ha!
My husband got shingles when we were in South Africa when he was 32 I think, back in 2005. When you said maybe it was some weird plant you rubbed up against, that made me think shingles, because that’s what we thought. His showed up on his forehead near his eye. The doc put him on anti-virals, which because he got them within 72 hours of the welt showing up, worked and stopped a lot of the pain. Nobody ever worried that something was wrong with him more than the shingles… it can come up in times of stress, which I guess was caused by visiting his home country and family for the first time in almost 10 years.
March 25, 2007 at 4:53 am
Pieces
I am a week late for this post. I sure hope that you are feeling much better. It is weird to hope that it was worms (shudder) instead of shingles.
August 15, 2007 at 5:30 am
Hillari
Hello!^