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Well if you’ve all been wondering where I’ve been lately…I’ve basically been in bed. I found out Thursday night that I have Shingles. Shingles? Ya that’s what I thought too. How the heck did I get this? Well come to find out, if you have been fighting a cold on and off for a couple months your immune system is pretty much shot, and because I had chicken pox as a young child, basically that virus stays dormant in your body and a small percentage of people will have a low immune system and it will come out of hiding in the form of shingles.

I am really young for this to happen to, it’s even a smaller percentage of people my age who get it. Also stress can cause the virus to come out and I guess I have been a bit stressed lately, so with that and the broken down immune system I am left with this virus.

Here is a snippet from mayoclinic.org…

The signs and symptoms of shingles usually affect only a small section of one side of your body. These signs and symptoms may include:

• Pain, burning, numbness or tingling
• Sensitivity to touch
• A red rash that begins a few days after the pain
• Fluid-filled blisters that break open and crust over
• Itching

Some people also experience:

• Fever
• Headache
• Sensitivity to light
• Fatigue

Pain is usually the first symptom of shingles. For some, it can be intense. Depending on the location of the pain, it can sometimes be mistaken for a symptom of problems affecting the heart, lungs or kidneys. Some people experience shingles pain without ever developing the rash.

Most commonly, the shingles rash develops as a stripe of blisters that wraps around either the left or right side of your torso. Sometimes the shingles rash occurs around one eye or on one side of the neck or face.

I’ve bolded out all the fun symptoms I have, you guys this is no joke.

Sooo how did I know I had this, well I started feeling really low on energy and I had this strange itch and tingling on the left side of my face. I kept telling my husband all my symptoms, but we both had no idea what was going on. Well you know the good ole internet actually helped me! I just typed in my symptoms in a google search bar and BAM! Shingles, Shingles, Shingles, popped up every where. Once I read about it I was like crap, pretty sure this is what I have. Well, what’s quite crappy about this is the fact that Bryon and I haven’t gotten ourselves health insurance since moving. Our kids have it but we don’t. I know what you are thinking, why the heck would you not have insurance? Well we have our reasons, I know we should have some, but we just don’t right now and it sucks!

So here I am 5 days later, taking all kinds of meds that I feel aren’t doing a dang thing, and I just want it gone already! I am stuck in my house, not wanting to be in public, I just want to feel normal again. And yes, like mayoclinic.org said, it is extremely painful. The pain is in the nerves, so you can’t just take Tylenol and get rid of it. I get shooting pains into my eye, ear, jaw and neck, along with the crazy amount of itching! Plus I have swollen glands behind and in front of my ear, like literally popping out underneath the skin.

Why am I telling you all this? Well for one, like I said, if  you all were wondering where I’ve been, and for two, we really need to take care of ourselves. I think because I have little ones I am always putting their needs first and put myself on the back burner and I need to stop. For the past month I kept telling myself I need to eat healthier, I need to workout more, I need to eat less sugar, etc. These are things that happen when we don’t do those things that we keep telling ourselves we need to change.

Keep on the lookout for some healthier desserts! I still will have my yummy tempting ones as well, just need to cut back a bit! Feel free to comment and share your stories if you have ever suffered from this! We can unite like one happy little shingles family…haha.