Shingles

 

I spoke of some serious leg pain in my last blog entry (here). I assumed that it involved the aftereffects of my once-broken femur. I still think that some of the pain was related to a small piece of bone that I’ve been told has grown into muscle within my thigh, but that wasn’t even close to being the main problem. I started to feel symptoms that were eerily similar to shingles, and yesterday I started to develop a rash in a small area of my thigh. I went to a clinic and, sure enough, I have shingles. The person examining me asked about stress in relation to the cause of my illness, but my pulse and blood pressure helped to prove that I was, generally speaking, a calm guy.

The outbreak and pain are on my damaged leg, and one of the assumed potential causes of shingles involves injury, so I’m thinking that maybe I overworked a messed up leg and it triggered something inside of me (I’m not a doctor, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once).

Anyhoo, this shingles thing is a painful ordeal…I mean PAINFUL. I haven't taken anything for the pain, but I am taking some medication for the shingles and I hope that it will go away soon. I’m not certain at all if it has anything to do with the injuries to my leg that were caused by the accident, but I can say that I’m thankful that the pain wasn’t primarily caused by an issue with my bones. I actually called an orthopedic surgeon before I discovered the shingles, but I never pulled the trigger on setting an appointment. At least it’s on my bad leg and I’m not double-limping, right?

So… the pain is grueling, but it’s still better than bone surgery and rehab. Uh-huh.