Monday, March 23, 2015

Stronger than cancer

So a few days ago, a rash showed up on my arm. Just four harmless little bumps, but strange. We showed it to the nurse on friday when I was in for my shot. She looked a little confused and concerned. She said to call if it spread or got worse. Well, by Sunday night, it had not spread, but the bumps had turned into more blister crater things and there was a growing red ring happening around it. 
So my dear husband suggested I call and speak with the on-call doctor. To which I whimpered "can you call for me?"  Being the Superman that he is, he made the call. The very nice doctor asked very thorough questuons and prescribed an anti-histamine and an antibiotic to be picked up and taken that night. His diagnosis:  Shingles.

 Whaaaaaaa??

 True to Heather-form, I hopped on the interwebs and did some research. Superman showed me some pictures. Yep. I have Shingles. 
It starts out with headache and sensitivity to light (I've been missing my sunglasses, now broken, in my car alot lately and I whined particularly loud when Superman turned on the bedroom light the other day) and then flu-like symptoms, no fever.  Diarhea, chills, stomach ache. (Last wednesday, post freakout.). And then an itchy and painful rash on one side of the body. (Right arm. Itchy. Not too painful, but a little bit.)
Sigh, so I guess this is my first real complication, huh. Shingles. Shingles. I can't get past that. I didn't even know what that was. Supposedly, if you had Chicken Pox, Shingles is unseen unheard of in you until a moment when your immunity is compromised. Welp, now would be that moment. 7 days after chemo #2. 
I have my oncologist appointment tomorrow. I just hope this doesn't put a delay in my treatment. Can I be on an antibiotic while receiving treatment?  I don't know.  Lets hope for good news.  But I will do whatever she says is right, even if its disappointing or inconvenient. 

Because I was taking a new antibiotic, Superman made me stay up and make sure I didn't have any bad reactions to it. So I read my book some more. One of the things it was talking about was visualization. Visualizing yourself as being strong and the cancer cells or tumor as being weak. 

I received this message from a dear friend today, who recently heard of my difficulties and I felt the timing was just perfect.

"I hate cancer, but I love people who are stronger than cancer. And that, obviously, is you."


3 comments:

  1. Ah! That's a good quote. Yes you are stronger then cancer and shingles. :) So do you have chemo tomorrow?

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    1. Selzer's quote. :)

      I have chemo scheduled for tomorrow. I'll hear this afternoon if I will do it or not. Hoping shingles doesn't cause a delay...

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  2. Aww, I have not had those but I've heard they can be painful. I hope yours resolve quickly. So sorry you have to deal with both, but you are quite right...you will kick both their butts. Hang in there!

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