Chickenpox Party, anyone??

This was a verbatim text conversation with my mom last night:

me: "14 mo old baby, 9 week old puppy, counselor in YW, ward camp director, two nanny jobs, choreographing and teaching 2 numbers for a musical, hubby in chiro school and taking boards this tri, on top of normal wife/mother stuff: cooking, cleaning, groceries, laundry, playgroup. Am I crazy???"
mom: "YES!!!!! How do you do it all???"
me: "Well, I don't. Not always. Right now camp is on the back burner, my apt is picked up but messier than I'd like, and I haven't blogged in a week. Aside from that you can just call me Superwoman. I did marry, Superman, remember? ;-)"
mom: "Haha! You ARE Superwoman!! You need a costume."

So that, my friends, is my non-excuse excuse for why I haven't been blogging much lately.

With that said, this post was originally supposed to be my thoughts on the movie Food Inc.
However, with some recent changes and development this morning, this post is not about Food Inc. Sorry to disappoint.

Refer to text conversation with my mom.... Since, clearly, I don't already have enough on my plate right now, I discovered today that I have Shingles.

I first noticed a strange burning on my right side about where I wear my pants, yesterday morning. Upon further inspection I also noticed a small, itchy rash. I thought it was odd, but carried on with my day. Later that evening I noticed an awful lot of dull, achy pains in that same general area. I decided to consult the hubby.

"You probably have Shingles." he said, in a mostly joking manner. Of course I googled it immediately. Later, I had him adjust me because my lower back, on the same side, was hurting quite a bit. He examined the rash more, stated that it was along a dermatone line, and wanted to palpate (feel) my back. He found that my L2 was fixated, and that it also connected with the dermatone line that the rash was on. He tried reassuring me that he didn't really think it was Shingles, but that I needed to keep an eye on it. (the correlations they learn in chiro school is amazing!)

This morning I discovered another small patch of red, and texted my mom "I have this really weird rash..." to which she inquired deeper and urged me to go to the doctor immediately. She reminded me that my dad and two of my sisters have had Shingles, and what I was describing sounded very similar.

The nurse told me the rash didn't look like much but when I described the accompanying pain, she said she thought it might be shingles as well. The doctor came in, looked at the rash, heard the symptoms, and agreed that it was likely shingles. She also commented on the fact that it was along a dermatone line (points for Scott!) that was connected to the spinal cord. She wrote a prescription for an antiviral to decrease the length and severity of the illness, but stated it would probably get worse before better.

So, here's the recap:

Symptoms:
-4 spots of bright red, itchy, rash, scattered in a wrapping fashion around my right hip
-a dull, achy pain in my hip socket area, some sharp shooting pains
-burning, prickly, and stinging sensations that come and go
-lots, and lots, and lots of stress in my life
-a family history of Shingles

Prognosis:
-anywhere from a week to 6 weeks before fully recovered
-contagious (by contact to rash) to anyone who has not had the chickenpox or vaccine
-I cannot spread shingles to anyone, but can spread chickenpox to those who have not had it, as long as the rash is blistering and scabbing and not covered. When it's completely scabbed I won't be contagious anymore. If I keep it covered (which is likely), there is a low chance of spreading it.


Blessings:
-a husband who is smarter than he gives himself credit for!!!!!
-an experienced mom who knew what to do right away
-if caught and antiviral started within 48 hours, the severity and longevity is drastically decreased (dad had it bad for 6 weeks, one of which he was flat in bed, sister had it bad for 2 days, 1 week to fully recover) I first noticed symptoms about 30 hours ago.

How do I feel right now? Completely fine, oddly enough. I still have the annoying pain in my hip, but otherwise I don't feel sick at all. I have only had this for around 30 hours though...still plenty of time to digress!

In conclusion, if anyone has children that want the Chickenpox, I would be glad to assist (I think...)! ;-)