My experience with Shingles

Hasn't been blogging here since the longest time.

And yea, i guess my twitter account has taken over the importance of my blog here. But, am still thankful that my blog is still alive, though is not active.

But yea, will bring constructive and informative stuff here, whenever i can, however i can. Especially now with my iPad being more used than my laptop itself.

I've encountered something which i feel that it's good to blog about it, since i'm currently stuck at home.

And boy, this is like the 2nd time that i'm 'quarantined' at home, the first being the Influenza B, which was like 2 years ago. By chance, i realized that i've got Shingles. And i actually didn't detect anything wrong with me until morning evening, an hour before work ended for the day.

On 09 Sep, i attempted my Army half Marathon and came back with a personal best of 3 hours 33 mins

i must say i'm rather proud of my timing, especially if it's a PB, and coupled with some 10 mins of bottlenecks, i was satisfied, and ready myself for 5 days of adventures in Taiwan.

11 - 15 Sep 2012 was a great time of exploring a new city. For a rare traveller, i've actually went to Taiwan, with no tour group. Thanks to my younger friends who did the planning, we literally scouted a few parts of Taipei, namely 九分，淡水，五分埔，西门町. 

Thinking back, it was during the trip that i was experiencing some symptoms of shingles, without realizing it. I had some rashes on my body, which i thought was really mild (and i had a rashes episode some 2 months ago) and it hurt a little, and i was feeling tired and i didn't have much appetite. Imagine a lot of food in Taiwan, what a time to have a lack of appetite!

My mom saw my rashes and concluded that they are insect bites, and suggested that we should change the mattress. But..... i had my doubts.

I went back to work on 17 Sep, and still feeling disturbed about the doubts. And i was getting quite freaked out by how the rashes looked - not friendly. So out of what i dunno, i typed "rashes on the body" and tried to get an answer. And i got the answer, cos the similarities are totally similar. And having my manager to see for me, she confirmed that it looked like shingles. A visit to my GP confirmed the shingles, and MC for the rest of the week until Sunday, before i go for the review.

Now is day 3 of my quarantine. 3 more days to go before i can leave the gate of my house. Am still grappling with the pain, and at times it got quite bad i need to take the painkiller, but that was for nights. I'm still coping with the boredom, but 3 more days to go before i can leave the house (even if.... it's another confinement for a few more days), i want to smell the air of freedom, albeit for a while.

Looking forward to getting better and the rashes to go, and the pain to subside. But i guess it's all about learning to cope with it. And be really thankful.

I'm thankful that i only have some on my upper back and front on the right side, and not on more areas, thankful that i can be awake and be alive and can walk around in my room, stay connected to the world outside my house via the social medias.

Till my next entry! (Won't take that long, i promise)