Shingles, but NOT Shingles

I was layed low last week with shingles....It all started on Monday Oct 11, the left side of my head felt really sore, like I had banged it on something...by tuesday morn, it was horribly sore..and sensitive to the lightest touch...even down the back side of my neck. By Wednesday, I couldn't move my head and it had sprouted huge, goose egg sized bumps all over the left side.. my head was visibly misshapen. While all of this was going on..we were desperately trying to get our crop off ....we had left the swathing (my job) until we were ready to combine because of the inclement weather...so when R's friend finally got the combine going again it was necessary for me to swath the grain...nearly 200 acres.  I drowned my self in tylenol, grit my teeth and went to work...All day tuesday, all day wednesday.... thursday morning saw my head on fire, pain like you have never felt before...the bumps and now fluid filled blisters everywhere...down the left side of my face, jaw and neck as well as all over the left side of my head...and new bumps on the back of my head...so I was sleep deprived...with only one side of my head that I could actually lay on the pillow...and a spasming neck, I was in a living hell.....

I had an appointment in the city with my Rheumatologist and during that appointment she asked if I had any new pain to tell her about, I said my head, she looked...said it was probably shingles and sent me for an emergency dermatology appointment...so we didn't make it home that day to combine like we had planned...we spent it in waiting rooms...the dermatologist examined my head said it was shingles...gouged a hole in my head to take a biopsy of one of the blisters...and gave me a prescription for anti-virals...said to take tylenol for the pain...but I had been all along and it was not effective...It took several more days of pain and blisters before I began seeing an improvement... and one week after seeing the dermatologist Ihad an appointment with my family doctor...he had the results of the biopsy  that the derm. had sent to him and the test for shingles was NEGATIVE.....  my doctor did not seem too concerned...he said that my immune system was so screwed up that I reacted different to things that anyone else he knew....but if the anti viral worked it must have been shingles....

I am still confused about that one....  the left side of my head is still very tender...and aches a bit...but the bumps are almost gone and the blisters have cleared up...I never want to have those again...but apparently because of my suppressed immune system...they could...come back, that is.

The good news is that I was back to work swathing on Friday...then Sat, Sun and Monday I spent baling the straw after the combine...and we got the crop off...I have been wiped ever since...a result of pushing myself so hard...

The past couple of days have been spent helping R haul the bales home and move the cows onto some hay fields...today is a day off for me...after I make lunch that is..and do laundry and vacuum...hahahahahaha  I get to start preparing for my nieces visit in November... I am so excited...family rarely ever visits...so I am stoked...got a lot of visiting to cram into 4 days....so I want to have most of the stuff prepared before hand...more time to visit that way ....   heheheheheheeeeeeeeee  excited....!!!!!