The following happened over several weeks. It started with weird pains on my face. Eventually, my face developed bumps that followed my jaw line on the left side. I’m used to problems on the left side of my face. I was unsure if my hearing, throat, or allergy problems caused it. It got so bad I took a day off work. Luckily, it was my Friday (which was a Wednesday). I was feeling what felt like a toothache. This didn’t explain the marks on my face, but it felt like a toothache. My next dentist appointment wasn’t until July. As the pain got worse, I knew I couldn’t wait that long. Beyond the feeling of a toothache, I was feeling increasing sensitivity from my jaw to my left ear. That is my bad ear. My skin and inner ear were painful to the touch. Eventually, my skin broke out along the nerve of my jaw. Patti made a dentist appointment for me.
The dentist took X-rays of the area where I was feeling pain. I found out in going there that our dentist had changed. It was now a man and women with the same last name. I think they are married but I’m not sure. The doctor looked at my X-ray and saw nothing wrong. I was about to leave, and he suggested they do a full head X-ray. I went to a part of the office I had never been in before. A large arm went around my head and scanned all my teeth. Looking at the new X-ray, they again saw nothing wrong. The good news was that my teeth were fine. The sad news was I didn’t know what was wrong with me.
I called Patti and told her what the dentist said. This was Tuesday so she was doing her regular senior discount shopping at Ross and other places. She said to schedule an appointment at the regular doctor’s office. The only thing they had was at 11:30 am. This is only 30 minutes after I usually get up to go to work. I had to change my schedule for the next morning. The pain was getting worse, so Patti gave me some of her 600 mg of ibuprofen pills she had from an earlier surgery. They helped me sleep through the night.
I got up at 8:00 am the next morning. We went to the doctor’s office. By this point, the skin rash had become worse. I joked to Patti that I had herpes. As soon as the doctor came into the exam room, she knew what the problem was. She said that what I had was shingles. I’ve heard of shingles but didn’t really know what it was. She explained that it’s a reactivation of chickenpox. Patti had just gotten her shingles vaccine shot, and she said it was painful. When the shingles went away, I would need to get my vaccinations.
After telling me what it was, the doctor said that it is something I can spread to other people. I would need to avoid touching my face and stay home from work for a week. She gave me two versions of an off-work order. One said what I had, and the other didn’t. I sent the one that didn’t say what I had into work. The main reason for this was that the description featured the word “herpes.” I knew I would probably tell people what happened when I went back to work. The doctor gave me 600 mg of ibuprofen pills and medication to block the virus. My one thought was that I would hopefully have enough time off from work to finish the kitchen cabinets.
Leave a Reply