h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm just recovering from a bout of shingles

I noticed a rash on my right hip but it was a week later before I managed to see my GP - too late for anti-viral meds (I was prescribed anti-depressants for a month and calomine lotion to dab on the rashes). I hid myself away for 2 weeks, I was banned from seeing my mother (age 95) as I am her carer, and I banned my partner (approaching 70) from seeing me until I was declared non-infectious a week later. The rashes had begun scabbing and they were a ing I was dying to itch but forcing myself not to as I didn't want any (more) scars. I had rashes on my right hip, top of my right leg, and in the small of my back, *inside* my (rear) cheeks and as far down as my big toe. I had odd spots on my left foot and the side of my stomach, but couldn't call them rashes. I also, before appearance of rashes and diagnosis, experienced a sudden drop in blood pressure, twice I recall, and a bout of unexplained nausea. I am now 3 weeks from the first appearance and the scabbing is being rubbed off by my almost-unbearable underwear and although I can see the new skin underneath, this is as sore as if I were suffering from burns. I cannot bear to be touched in those areas. I have suffered with this to the point of wishing I would not awaken again

What's kept me going is that my father had a bout of shingles when recovering from an operation on his prostate, he said it was worse than the pain of his operation and now I know how he felt.

I agree that it was probably brought on by stress. I am approaching 60, and have never felt so old. This year has been tiresome in the extreme, my mother's determination to remain in her own home is laudable but the burden of the upkeep of her house falls on the family, and this year there's been one thing after another gone wrong, from boiler to leaking roof, doors jamming and requiring repositioning and patio doors letting in the rain, to name the major ones. Lots of minor ones I can't even recall but have been irksome in their multiple numbers. I am beginning to dread going round!

I hope I never get shingles again nor would I wish it upon my worst enemy. Well, maybe Jihad John.