I plan, and it seems the universe laughs

 5 weeks. It's been 5 weeks since I've been able to write here.

When I wrote that first post back on the 26th of June, it seemed that someone or something out there was listening to me and decided that, no, no, no, we can't be letting her have something go a little too well.

So how did the universe decide to get back at me; by giving me Shingles, that's how!

I'll spare you the photos we took for future reference and to show Dr's (you're welcome), but to cut a rather long story to a still slightly long but not as long as it would be story, I woke up a few weeks ago on Friday the 14th July with a sudden and sore rash on the right side of my back right by my armpit.

At first, I thought that I must have slept on it funny or something irritated it in the night while I slept, but still, I let my mother know about it, showed her and she came to the same conclusion.

Looking back on it now, it seems rather obvious what was happening, but after the medical experiences I've had in the past few years, I believe that we subconsciously chose to see it as something that would sort itself out soon.

But as you probably gathered by what I've said so far, it didn't.

So Friday, I'm just chilling, trying not to scratch the rash and, in general just trying not to agitate it. But as the day went on, it started to hurt more and more, with more itching now accompanied by burning and itching. 

Again, ignorance is bliss, and I was hoping that I was just feeling more sensitive to the rash due to my physical chronic conditions. I also had plans to go out for the day on Saturday and was rather desperate to leave the house for something that wasn't a medical appointment. 

You can probably guess where I ended up later on, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

So Saturday rolls around; I didn't sleep too well the night before as anytime I moved in my sleep and caught the rash on something, I was woken up. I got ready to go out and met my boyfriend at the local shopping centre and after he saw the rash and the fact that it had not started to spread to more of my forearm, the decision was made to visit the pharmacist to get their opinion as trying to see a GP on a Saturday is practically impossible. 

Off to the pharmacy we go and the verdict from them was...drumroll please... A SIMPLE BACTERIAL INFECTION!

So here you go, a £5 cream to put on a few times a day and it'll heal in no time. At this point, my brain is feeling like it's shutting down slightly as my physical body is struggling even more than usual. So I buy the cream and bless my boyfriend, he put some on me right there and then (after washing his hands, of course), but I was now at the point that even the slightest touch was causing excruciating pain. 

The cream was applied, and hands were rewashed, we get a bit of shopping done and go to sit for a quick drink. Now the next few hours are a bit of a blur, but as it was so kindly explained to me later, I started to get a little out of it, brain foggy and was struggling to drink my blackcurrant squash. 

The boyfriend made the decision to get me back home so that the rest of the family could be informed and witness what I was like. Now it isn't unusual for me to have times when I'm not really with it, but the difference with this one was that by the time we got to the front garden, that blackcurrant squash ended up in the grass, and well for the next week or so there was a wonderful purple patch on the grass right outside the house.

This was the point that everyone realised that there might be a little something more to this rash and the other symptoms I'm getting because, during all this, the rash was getting worse, the cream had done nothing whatsoever, and the boyfriend was explaining what the pharmacist had said. 

This next part I remember well, my mum asked me if I had ever felt this group of symptoms before and minus the rash, this was how I've felt with every infection I've had before. As someone prone to an infection or a dozen. I think this was when we all were ready to admit that we were dealing with something a little more. 

We knew my body was going to need emergency medication as soon as physically possible, and with it being a Saturday, a GP appointment wasn't an option to off the hospital my loved ones took me yet again.

As people that have had 16-hour wait in A&E before, and with it being a Saturday, we were expecting to be in it for the long haul, so as I was being wheeled in, my mum and boyfriend (as my body was so tired at this point that I could barely get myself around or even awake, I was being kept awake by the boyfriend so that I was able to talk to the Dr's), imagine the surprise when the room was near empty. My vitals were taken in the first half an hour, and I was seeing the Dr after only an hour and a half.

It was there that we got the very obvious news that I had developed Shingles, hence why my rash was spreading fast, was very, very painful, and my body and brain were so out of it because it wasn't able to cope with this infection because of all my other chronic conditions and was effectively shutting itself down, going into survival.

So after a speedy trip, we left to get my prescription of anti-virals which was a challenge in itself but we finally got there after going to 4 different pharmacies. 

Taking them was a whole different story; 5 doses a day with 4 hours between each dose for 7 days, so no choice but to set alarms for midnight and 4am. As if trying to sleep with chronic conditions and Shingles pain wasn't hard enough. Suffice it to say I was not a happy Abbie for that week.

So I'm taken home, and my boyfriend stays over for a few more hours till he has to go back to his, but not before he made sure I had eaten something, and by something my safe/comfort food of a supermarket meal deal (the reason it's safe/comforting to me is a story for another time) and that I'm keeping all fluids and food down. 

We didn't need any more multicoloured surfaces, thank you very much.

And so recovery started, and you may be wondering why, if this all happened over a month ago and I was only on the anti-virals for a week, how come I'm only up to writing again now.

Well, as anyone out there who also has chronic illnesses and immune system issues, any type of infection, no matter how big or small it may be, is never quite as simple as it may appear. 

During the week of the pills, you would have expected that, yes I was still going to feel rough but the rash wouldn't spread anymore. But as you can probably guess by how I'm writing this out, it wasn't that simple. 

Despite starting the anti-virals within 72 hours of the first symptoms showing, the rash was getting worse and worse, had now spread to the entirety of the top half of my right arm, redder and more tender to the point where even the wind of a fan was causing it to flare up, despite having finished the course of the pills a few days beforehand.

Now from all the research I had done, I knew it wasn't going to be much better after this week, but every reputable website said that the anti-virals would stop it from getting any worse. So why was mine getting worse? 

So it was time to talk to a Dr again, and luckily it decide to get worse during a weekday and by some miracle, I was able to talk to a GP on the same day. In his words, I had already had a whacking dose of anti-vial pills and I'm already n a lot of medication for my multiple conditions we will try another course of anti-viral but as a topical cream instead.

The better-suited cream compared to the one from a week and a bit ago gets obtained and applied which at first is really rather painful to put on, but after a while, it actually starts to work and now here I am, 5 weeks later with a nearly completely clear arm, minus a few stubborn scabs that just will not go (but we're working on that) and some scarring and discolouration which with my skin issues was to be expected.

Of course, I would prefer to not have the scarring and I may try incorporating something into my skincare routine to help it, but knowing my skin I may not be able to do a lot, but I'd take all the scars over still dealing with the full effects of Shingles again. 

And that brings us to now, fingers crossed I don't have anything other than my normal medical problems for a while (not a sentence that a lot of the population can say) and that I can get back to my desired writing schedule.

Until next time, Abigail x