Shingles

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted to my blog since Monday. Or perhaps you didn't notice it, but I'd like to think my blog is about as important as world politics, so you know, I'm pretending that "people" noticed.

The reason for my disappearance is on Tuesday, I was diagnosed as having shingles. Now what are shingles, you might ask? How is it contracted? Is it contagious? What does it feel like?

My detailed answer is as follows: How the fuck should I know? Do I look like a doctor to you?

All I know is the symptoms are:
1) Forgetfulness
2) Extreme irritability
3) Forgetfulness

Ok, ok, settle down, I'm not that bad. Shingles are basically an adult version of the chicken pox. For some people, when they get the chicken pox, the virus doesn't truly leave the body. Instead it kinda hangs out in the spinal cord and sometimes puts in an appearance later on in life -- for many it doesn't.

The problem is, when it comes back, it's a lot more painful than the chicken pox, but it has some cool features too. Because the virus comes back by travelling along one nerve coming out from the spinal cord, the little spots and splotches are localized to one area of the body depending on what nerve the virus came from. Even cooler, it only affects one side of the body, since it's just the one nerve.

In my case, I have spots on the right side of my scalp and neck. So when I brush my hair, I can feel all these lumps on one side of my head, but not the other. How cool is that?!

Ok, it's actually kind of disgusting, but I'm on codeine right now for the pain and another med for the virus itself, so I'm feeling kind of good and in a sharing mood.

I'll be resting up over the next few days, so I likely won't have much to say (like I had a lot to say now) over the next few days. Next week should be exciting, though, with lots of interesting things going to -- to be revealed next week.

*Gasp* Did I just offer a teaser in my blog? I believe I did. Deal with it! Damn, there's that irritability again!