Fighting Shingles

Shingles?  What?  Isn't that what "old" people get?

This was my thought process last month as I sat in the doctors' office listening to him explain to me exactly what the pain in my head, face, and neck was related to.

I have suffered from TMJ since I was 8 years old.  The pain associated with it is something that I have become accustomed to dealing with on a daily basis.  The popping and clicking of my jaw as I talk or chew is routine for me, but for people like my sisters it is something that they can't stand.  One sister doesn't even like to sit by me during meals because the sound of my jaw annoys her.

Most days, I feel the pain is bearable but I woke up one morning a few weeks ago and it felt very unbearable!  I went two days taking ibuprofen and hoping that the pain would subside.  During those two days, I went to get my haircut.  When I did, I told my sister in law who cuts my hair that I had some sore spots on my head near my hairline and asked her to be careful when she brushed or cut in that area.  I am prone to pimples on my scalp so I didn't really think anything of it.  (Hey, at least they are always hidden in my hair and not plastered all over my face like a teenager!)  By the end of the second day, I was miserable.  I woke up that Saturday morning and took Caleigh to my parents and took myself to the doctor.

The pain in my jaw and ear was excruciating!  I could not speak or move my jaw with out severe pain.  I was convinced that I had either a really bad ear infection or my jaw had moved in some awful position that it was stuck in and couldn't get out of.  I tried to describe the pain by saying I felt as if someone had hit me on right side of my head with a baseball bat and the pain that resulted at the moment of impact was the pain I felt constantly!

After waiting over an hour to be seen by a doctor, he tells me that I have the shingles!  He pulls up a photo of facial nerves and says that the shingles have attacked my mandibular nerve and the pain in my face will likely only get worse before it gets better.  The "pimples" I think I have on my scalp are actually the beginning of a shingles rash and they will go from "just there" to "five alarm burning, pain, and itching" before calming down as well.

All of this was very overwhelming but I was glad to have a diagnosis.  Only trouble was, there was no cure.  It's a virus.  I just had to let it run it's course.  So, what is it's course?

Supposedly, the fatigue, headaches, and general feeling of being unwell are followed by the eruption of a painful rash on one side of the body.  The rash then has to rupture and heal (approximately 2-4 weeks later) and then the pain can start to subside over the next month to six months.

In the beginning, the pain was crazy.  It was to the point that functioning on a daily basis was almost not possible.  Prescribed pain medication could help some, but the numbing it with cold packs seemed to be the only way to really get any relief.  As the weeks went on, the pain got more tolerable.

A month later, I am still fighting with the effects of what getting the chicken pox in kindergarten caused me to have!  The rash exploded and wrapped itself around the right side of my head.  My right eye became swollen and purple around it for over a week.  The skin on the right side of my face where the nerve was attacked has become dry, red, and very irritated.  I haven't found anything that actually makes the skin feel any better.  It always feels tight and dry.  The right side of my head is very sensitive.  Washing, drying, and brushing my hair is a daily challenge.  I still have to take pain medication every now and then but no where near the amount I had to take four weeks ago.

I have photos that I have taken of some of my rash and of my face but I don't think I will post those.  They are much too graphic to put on here.

Things are getting better.  It is just taking a very long time and I hope it don't take much longer.  I am DONE fighting with this virus.  Just DONE!