No, not the ones on your roof! Shingles are the wonderful relative of chicken pox that rarely shows up in people under the age of 50….however, sometimes if your immune system is down or you have an exceptionally great amount of stress or some other unknown reason, they can pop up. Yes, this is what I got for my holiday gift 😛
SIDE NOTE: please do not worry about getting shingles if you are stressed or have a low immune system. They are relatively rare in youth–I’m just lucky, I suppose (haha). I find such things interesting, so if you aren’t a fan of somewhat gross things, you might not want to continue reading.
So what are shingles? Well, its actual name is Herpes zoster (isn’t that lovely :P) and is a viral disease characterized by a rather uncomfortable skin rash with beautiful (ha :/) blisters in a limited area on one side of the body, often in a stripe. Mine are on the right side of my upper back and currently look like North America xD.
People can only get shingles if they have already had chicken pox (I was 7). The chicken pox virus never actually goes away, but lays dormant in your nerve cell bodies. For some people, years or even decades later (10 years for me), the virus can travel down the nerve axons and cause the lovely viral infection, known as shingles, in the region of the nerve. The virus may spread from one or more ganglia along nerves of an affected segment and infect the corresponding dermatome (an area of skin supplied by one spinal nerve) causing a painful rash. But not worry, the rash usually heals within two to four weeks, and when treated within 72 hours of the outbreak, a medication can be prescribed to reduce inflammation and shorten the duration of the infection (after one day, I hurt WAY less :D).
At this point, you may be freaking out a bit, but not to worry! As long as you don’t touch the fluid in the blister (and why you would do that, I don’t want to know) it is not contagious! YAY! 🙂
If you are worried, I feel much better than yesterday. It’s more of a nuisance than anything else, as it is sensitive to light pressure, such as my sweater moving when I walk, and, being connected through the nervous system, a prickling feeling occasionally shoots down to my elbow. But it’s all in good fun! 😀 (BTW: Tylenol works wonders–ibuprofen didn’t seem to work on it.)
Hope you are all having a wonderful winter break! 😀
