Shingles!

About the time that my mom left, I caught a full on cold and I noticed a rash starting on my side.  I don't know why but I had the thought that maybe I was getting shingles.  I looked it up but couldn't be sure because it was a simple rash.  Well that rash continued and started to get bigger bumps.  I called my Dad and asked what I should do because most of the Drs would touch me being 20 weeks pregnant.  He suggested I go see Dr. Royal who is a traditional Dr but also specialized in homeopathic medicine.  I called and Dr. Royal got me in.  He definitely wasn't a traditional Dr.  He gave me granules to put under my tongue and said to let them dissolve.  Then he gave me a B12 injection.  Then he withdrew some of my blood and mixed it with another homeopathic remedy and injected it into my hip.  Then he took B5 and Procain and injected it into my back.  I didn't know exactly what he was doing, other than injecting my back multiple times.  He said that those things should help my immune system fight it and the Procain should help disrupt the Shingles virus.  When I went to the bathroom to see what the injections looked like, I was a little surprised at what I found.  It was a triangle of injections but made sense because it was right at the dermatome of where the shingles probably reside in my nerves/spine. 

The rash turned from small bumps to blisters.  They itched and burned and I couldn't touch them or sleep.  They wrapped from my back all the way around to the front of my right side.  So I couldn't sleep on my stomach, right side or back.  It was a long time, but fortunately with the remedies from the Dr, a sample of Avion lotion, my array of oils, I lucked out and the shingles were gone in about 3-4 weeks.  Apparently that is a short time to have shingles.  Usually it's 8 weeks or longer.  I was blessed.

Fortunately Abby was here for the worst part of the shingles.  She helped me watch the girls.  But had to deal with me walking around with my shirt half up because I didn't want anything touching my side.  Since everyone had the chickenpox vaccine they weren't in much harm of getting infected.  Plus they would have had to touch and pop one of the blisters.  They were solid things!  Eventually the blisters turned dark and scabbed over.  Then the scabs fell off and left a lovely string of scars.  Hopefully the scars will dissipate over time.