SHINGLES REVISTED!

By Shirley M. Carolan, ATM-G

It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since I first broke out in Shingles blisters. But that is so. I’ve since had many opportunities to regret my cavalier attitude when my doctor first asked me, at the beginning of 2009, if I’d like to have a Shingles vaccination and I immediately said No! without asking what Shingles is and how severe can it be.

Shingles is not something to mess with! I am still suffering from some symptoms of it to this day! Sometimes the itch is so unbearable that I just scratch myself to pieces, at times even drawing blood. Sometimes the pain is unbearable … My doctor has prescribed 3 different salves, all to no avail.

But, I’ve come a long way in this past year. I look back and remember that if something dropped to the floor, even a pencil, I was unable to bend down and pick it up, so covered in blisters was my waist…Even daily setting down my Shih-Tzu’s food and water dishes was painful. Today, I can at least bend down and retrieve almost anything from the floor. I can do small gardening jobs. Why I can even vacuum, or mop, the house!

I tell myself that it could be worse. I could be in an assisted living place with limited mobility and immediately I am grateful for what health I do have. And when I get really down I take out the photos from a year ago and look at the terrible mess I was in. When I see all down my back and across my waist to the middle of my chest, the horrible blisters I can appreciate why my doctor told me I had one of the worst cases of Shingles she had ever seen!

It is my fervent hope that by sharing my ordeal with you, particularly if you are over 55, or, your know of someone who is, that you will urge them to get the Shingles vaccination! You, or they, will be so glad you did. To live in daily pain, or itch, is very debilitating and depressing. It can rob you of energy and living a normal life. Why take that chance. Life is too precious and much too short!

Shirley M. Carolan, ATMG
Writer ● Speaker ● Artist
artistwithaflair@att.net
Phone/Fax: 760-732-0663
http://www.shirleycarolan.com
http://www.angelscross.blogspot.com
http://www.smcarolan.blogspot.com

Copyright© 2010 by Shirley M. Carolan. All rights reserved. To reprint any part of this article simply contact Shirley Carolan at artistwithaflair@att.net. Thank you
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