Shingles is an outbreak of chickenpox virus one had earlier in life. After years of dormant living in part of the body, it rises up to skin and causes patches of blisters.
I remember distinctively that it started with a pinch, a poke or a nip in my back while I was sitting at my desk. I said to myself, "what was that? oh well, it is what it is. It's OK."
Well, I was wrong. The initial discomfort started to spread, slowly and steadily, however elusively. It's a strange kind of pain, it tingles, it travels. It's like hanging on a string. Yet, I can't seem to pinpoint it. I tried to massage it away without success. It slowly ate its way through my body on the ticking of its biological clock.
Several days later, I knew something was not right. This thing was like a ghost sticking to my bone. It felt like something was wrong with my kidney, yet my intake and discharge did not seem to suffer. I heard that kind of pain in kidney is incapacitating. Yet I still played a pick up soccer game without much effort. It could be problem with my appendix. But I have no fever. I would rather that was due to a pulled muscle. My honest self told me not. I climbed in and out under my car, I jumped and lifted weights with no problem. This was really bothering me.
Finally, the first blister appeared. It hit me just then that I remember a talk with my mom years ago.
She put her finger on a scar on my arm and said "That one, I remember, it was from your chickenpox when you were still a baby. You were running high fever...."
"Mom, yeah, I know, you told me before"
"Yeah, but when it comes back.."
"Wait, what do you mean when it comes back?"
"Well, you never get rid of the virus, it stays in you, sleeping, sort of. When it comes back years later, it becomes shingles. There is going to be blisters, painful blisters."
"Thanks, mom, just what I needed" I wasn't too keen on continuing that talk. Being young, I felt like invincible.
With these blisters showing up, circling my waist perfectly on one side my body, splitting in the middle, hooray, I knew what I have now, dam it, shingles. The second round is on.
The next day, I went to see my doctor with a sense of triumph. I showed my scar to him and asked "I nailed it, right?" "Yes, you are absolutely right" once he saw it. 5 minutes later, I was off with a prescription of anti-viral drug.
Yeah, shingles.
Fuck it, shingles.