The Diagnosis

The Ceti Eel under my ear turns out to be shingles. Yes, that's right friends, I've got shingles. Or, more precisely, a "reactivation (from the nerve cell body in the sensory ganglion of a segment of the spinal cord) of varicella zoster virus" (Wikipedia). This has been bothering me for a few days, and when it only got worse I went into a walk-in clinic today. Doctor recognized it immediately, and suggested that I would have been a lot better off if I had come in a few days earlier. Nonetheless, he put me on Valtrex and a topical cream for the outbreak site (my jaw and cheek area). Sigh.

MD says, "No one knows why it reactivates." Gee, I wonder if stress could be a factor?

So here's a pic of my new favorite molecule...

Let's hope I started it in time to make some difference to the course.

Luckily this isn't very contagious, the only risk is that I would give the virus to someone who hasn't already had Chickenpox, and even then it's pretty hard to spread it. But I'm going to have others distribute communion tomorrow just to be safe.

Sigh. So where's the wisdom to be gained? Go to the doctor earlier? Obviously. Perhaps also, "stress is bad for you?" Surely there is something deeper there. Sigh. Right now I'm in no mood to figure it out...

-t