Wash Your Hands

All through flu season, I was obsessive about washing my hands. I made it through and got overconfident. Now I've had some opportunistic invasions take advantage of my weakened immune system. Even the minor ones turned out bad. I need to remember that every day is flu season.

I got a basically harmless fungus behind my right ear. That area is numb, so I didn't feel anything. There's no lymph system there, so there's limited immune capabilities. Anti-fungal shampoos have helped, but the fungus hangs on. It's a little itchy and produces some flaking, but that's it. It's a common fungus and not really dangerous. The fact that I'm mentioning it means there's more coming.

Another opportunistic invader was shingles in the area where I had my surgery. Pain in that area could be from the surgery or even a result of recovery from the surgery (as nerves start working again). The pain I had got me to the doc quick. We caught the shingles early and had them gone within a week.

About a week after the shingles were diagnosed as finished, I had a pain in a muscle that's stretched really tight from the surgery. I thought maybe more scar tissue was forming and shortening the muscle. I called my doc. The pain was enough that I used his emergency number. He was alarmed enough that he got me in that afternoon. I drove 25 mile to Newton to see him where he was working that day.

I need to do a rundown of pain levels to continue this in ways that can be understood. On a scale of 1 - 10:

10 = Nerves stop registering pain because they've been registering the maximum possible for a long time and it doesn't help. They give up and quit. Been there.
9 = Produces nausea to the verge of vomiting, entire body may become flushed, sweat breaks out everywhere.
6 = You will beg for morphine.

Doc gave me two meds to determine whether it was scar tissue affecting the muscle or whether I had post-herpetic neuralgia. If it was scar tissue, he would have to cut the affected muscle. Post-herpetic neuralgia is the pain from shingles continues after the breakout is finished. Post-herpetic neuralgia can be permanent.

It was post-herpetic neuralgia. Plus I was so messed up I wanted nothing to do with the drugs that are supposed to help it. Then I discovered I was running a fever.

Another opportunistic infection gave me some variety of influenza in the middle of summer. Fever, achy muscles, extreme fatigue, digestive upset, congestion, cough, sleep 16 hours a day.

Then the post-herpetic neuralgia spread into the area behind my ear where I have the itchy fungus. Shingles pain is very sensitive to touch. If I scratched that area I had about 15 seconds before I got level 9 shingles pain. That 15 seconds gave me enough time to really get into the scratching before I realized I was in trouble.

I called my doc Monday morning. He requested that when he gave me the meds Friday. I described my symptoms and he had me in for a CAT scan so quick that I only had time to throw on some clothes and drive there. I had given him about 3 potential symptoms that indicate a possible return of the cancer.

Sunday night the pain kept waking me up about every hour. When I woke up I found myself scratching my head before I was conscious enough to realize that was a bad idea. The only thing I could do was grab the mattress and squeeze hard and wait for the level 9 pain to subside.

Both of the meds I got lately to control the pain overnight really leave me messed up the next day. Thick-headed, groggy, downed-out are phrases describing how they make me feel.

I have an old scrip with a few pills remaining for a sedative that lets me sleep, totally eliminates the shingles pain, and so far hasn't had any effects the next day.

I hope I can get a new scrip. It's a fairly heavy sedative - one they give surgery patients just before surgery - the one they used to keep me unconscious for 2 days last summer when I was in ICU. I'ts also the best shingles med I've found.