Shingles, the whiney edition.

Hello lovelies, one and all, welcome to the post in which I'm going to describe Shingles. Hopefully those of you who have already suffered at the hands of the  herpes zoster virus will nod in agreement.

Shingles - it sounds so innocent. Almost fun. It rhymes with a lot of fun, jolly sounding words.

Mingles - what one does at a party. Parties are fun and jolly. I don't think I was ever taken to a chicken pox party in the 1970s. I'm not sure if these were urban myths. I cannot believe a mother would do that to her future grown up child. Mingles were also a delicious mint chocolate one bought at Christmas.

Jingles - goes with bells. CHRISTMAS bells. Always a fun and jolly time.

Dingles - a fun, jolly family on a TV soap called Emmerdale.

Singles - tennis, badminton, vodka, whisky, gin, brandy, no whiney partner to contend with, nights to mingles with other singles, all of these are fun and jolly.

Pringles - massive round crisps in a tube. Lots of flavours. The adverts for Pringles show people having a very fun and jolly time. I did go off Pringles a bit when I saw a false lady health guru - she was a real lady, the Doctor title she awarded herself was false - but, she set fire to a Pringles and each one yielded a teaspoonful of oil.

Tingles - a word assosciated with excitement, ergo fun and jolly times.

Well, let me tell you, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Bloggy Reading World. Shingles is NOT fun and definitely NOT funny.

Thanks to my childhood bout of Chicken Pox, the little Herpes Complex virus has been lying dormant in my body. Something woke it up and it travelled along my ganglions to my head. It's a bit special, because apart from one sore that refuses to heal, I've no outward tell tale rash. This can happen.
So the right side of my scalp, my right eye and forehead are where most of the fun and jolliness is occurring right now.

Here are a few of the sensations I've had. I promise you I've not made them up. I've tried really hard to put it into words.

My scalp is tender and painful to touch. Almost like it's been pulled into a tight ponytail for several weeks. It also prickles. Like non painful pins and needles. And then it will suddenly turn to red hot needles jabbing into you. This sensation travels diagonally  down across my forehead, along my eyebrow and then down and round my eye socket. Early on it would also send a surge of burny hot pain upwards back into my head. Thankfully, these surges are less frequent. But when they occur, it makes you wince. Almost as soon as you've registered the pain, it's gone.

Then there's the itching. Long time readers may recall my whingeing about the dreadful all over body itching produced by my jaundice when I had a blocked bile duct. Dark days indeed. But just this odd top quarter of my head gets such itches. Scratching brings no comfort.

Sometimes it feels like you've got a strand of hair on your skin, and you go to grasp it or brush it away...only there's no strand of hair at all. It's your skin playing tricks on you. Bizarrely my nose will feel like it's hot and cold alternatively.



Another 'fun' feeling is the feeling of  tiny microscopic little termites creeping  in single file along my  top eyelid. They then creep along my eyebrow. Last night there was a new sensation that I can only describe as 'crinkly'. Right in the corner of my eye, next to my nose, it crinkles for a few seconds. I've videoed this. But of course I cannot see anything outwardly but man it's slightly uncomfortable and extremely annoying. Also, a feeling of numbness, then hot, then cold moving around my forehead and eye occurs at random.
It also happens in waves - imagine those long, rope lights people have up at Christmas, like chasing sequences of pulses of light - THAT'S How all of these sensations occur.

When my face feels 'hurty' it is like a thousand nettle stings at once, but times the pain by a zillion. Just when you feel you can't take it anymore, it goes. Then it'll feel jingly right along my hairline. You don't get a minutes peace. It makes concentrating on one thing tricky. In fact I have wondered if anyone with Shingles ever murdered anyone. It is driving me to distraction. I've tried knitting - but I have to keep stopping to itch. I've tried reading and watching TV - but I have to keep stopping to rub my eye.

Normally when I'm ill, I recognise the feeling of getting better day by day. Whilst I am sure my scalp is less sore than it was in the beginning,my eye looks as swollen right now, as it was on day one. The scabbed over sore on my eyebrow looks no better either.

I'm just a grumpy, funless, jollyless,fed up one eyed whinge bag!! I'm on the list for a head transplant.

Ok, let's finish this post with some photos. Knitting I've done.
I finally finished this little peach lacy cardigan.

I've started a new girls cardigan for my friend's baby.

The peach one WAS for her. It's size newborn. She was born months ago!! This new one is around
12months size so hopefully I can finish it in time for it to fit!
I've also started a little boy cardi in pale blue.

Crochet News - in one of my last posts, I declared war on crochet. I have been battling with hooks and yarn and with the help of the very nice lady from Verypink Knits on you tube, I've managed to produce something that looks like a granny square.  Things I have learned are I need to use wool of the same thickness and I cannot crochet alone yet! I still need tuition. As for the patterns- they are written in some language I have never seen before. But I have not surrendered just yet.

Off to read and comment on some of your blogs now.  Then I'm going to put out my old tumble dryer fluff in a suet feeder for the nesting birds. I got a whole load of seed delivered for my garden pets as I calls em. The delivery driver called me and my friend 'crazy bird ladies' ! 

In case you are interested, we got 20kg of black sunflower seed for £19.99 p&P free!! From Garden Wildlife Direct. 

Well time for my QOD. 

Have  you had Shingles? Where was yours?

Lots of love from

Rachel *nerves well and truly jangled* Radiostar xx