August 23, 2007

• The Chicken Pox/Shingles Soapbox

  Time for me to step up on my soapbox and give a good, long, bitch-filled rant on the woes of shingles.     Shingles is the secondary infection of the chicken pox virus.   Guess what?  If you've ever had chicken pox, you could experience a re-activation of the virus in the form of shingles (also called Herpes Zoster).

  Ya know what could prevent this?   Not ever having a case of chicken pox.   So all of you with children, GET THEM VACCINATED!!    So what if it's not a life-long immunity or an absolute guarantee that they'll never ever have so much as one pox.......I'll gladly and happily line up my kids for boosters, if there's a good chance I could spare them from the agony their father has endured.

  Let me back up a bit to mid July.    Hubby was sorting out the soybean stuff.  In the course of dealing with the big boxes, a lid came crashing down and hit him in the forehead, leaving a pretty huge bump and a deep gash.    Not much problem, we cleaned him up and glued the gash and covered it with butterfly closures.

  A week later he starting having some pretty bad headaches.   A few days after that his left eye was watery and bloodshot.   A few days later he was in such agony that he asked his employee to drop him off at the express care clinic, thinking he just had pinkeye or something and an infection at the now-healed gash site.    They took one look at him and send him to the ER.   Diagnosis:   shingles.    Affected area:   forehead, cheek, nose, eye, scalp, and neck - all on the left side.

  We left with directions for care and scripts to have filled.   I then stopped at the pharmacy.   $500 later I walked out armed with 10 days worth of meds.    Yes, $500 freaking American dollars.

  Oh, but wait!   We're not done yet!

  The pain was so intense, he spent the next week in bed, emerging only for mad dashes to the bathroom to barf up what little food he'd managed to eat.     Well, I did drag him outta bed for a trip to the eye specialist who insisted he come in that.very.day. becuase apparently this infection of the eye can be very serious and even lead to sight loss and blindness.

  So here we are, now four and a half weeks since the first symptom (the headaches) and we still aren't done.   It's been one trip to express care, one trip to ER, two trips to regular doctor, four visits to eye specialist, five trips to the pharmacy (to the tune of over $600).    BUT WAIT!   It's still not over!   At least he's not spending all day in bed, he does spent short amounts of time up and about before retiring to the couch or recliner.

  It's now nearing the end of week two of a painful complication called "iritis" which is an inflammation of the iris of the eye.    Three different eye drops, staggered through the day, and one of which is administered every two hours.   Our house is now not-so-lovingly referred to as "The Bat Cave".   Because of the severe sensitivity to light, all blinds and shades are now blocking as much sunlight as possible.   Those that aren't light-blocking (but instead are light filtering) now have dark sheets or towels covering them.   Every.single.room.is.dark.    Even artificial lights must be kept very very dim.

  He still has intense pain, requiring narcotic pain relievers every six hours.

  We now have the official diagnosis of Post Herpetic Neuralgia.   Gee, thank you, nasty little virus, for damaging the nerves so that now he could very possibly be suffering this debilitating pain for up to a year.  

  Yes, boys and girls, that's right.....up to a year.   

  And debilitating.  Did you catch that word?    A grown man, who has a known high tolerance for pain, has essentially lost four and a half weeks' worth of his life and is facing a completely unknown future of continued pain.    Can you imagine if he weren't self employed?    Well I sure hope he'd have a good bank of time off days socked away to cover this.    Can you just think about this future for your children?    "Oh I'm sorry you're in pain, but you haven't been able to work for weeks, so now you're fired"

  Oh but please don't feel sorry for me.   I've been taking up the slack around the farm.   All of the chores that he has always done must still be done.   Each.and.every.day.    So that means in addition to my wife/mommy/cook/maid/laundry/etc duties, I now get to work in doing all the things that hubby does, and also played nurse to the ailing man.   Every two hours - administer eye drops.    Cater to sick man, bringing snacks, food, drinks to him.   Cleaning/sterilizing the bathroom frequently.   Super frequent change of bedsheets and pillowcases (those oozing lesions were disgusting!).    Accomplish my daily chores, accomplish hubby's daily chores, and try my best to handle the business (phone calls, money matters, rental issues, etc).   Oh yes, I have just thoroughly enjoyed the last month.

  But hubby?   Yep, he's still in pain.    He's still not sleeping well.   Which means *I* don't get to sleep well.   This is not isolated to his discomfort but is affecting the rest of our family and home life, has a deep effect on our business.

  So I may have to continue being "The Man" and take over harvest.   At the very least I'll be splitting the time with hubby.   If he's able to drive anything (which hasn't been the case now for a month) he most likely will be unable to work for longer than a few hours at a time.    Gee, if he can't see now and can't drive a car and can't even be in a moderately-lit room without wearing dark sunglasses, and can't hardly see out of one eye, do ya think he'll be able to operate a very expensive and very large piece of farm machinery for 12+ hour days????

  In conclusion, PLEASE PLEASE think of your children's futures.    They could suffer this fate.   They could not only lose their ability to care for themself or their family for the acute stage, but the lingering pain could be debilitating.    All it takes is a simple vaccine to save not only the lost time, wages, and enjoyment, but could save them from enduring this agony and the cost of medications.

  I'm beginning to go crazy.  And I'm taking my family with me!

  • 12:15 pm
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