My Shingles Experience

On Saturday, June 6, Tammy and I traveled to Oregon from Boston.  We drove two hours to the airport followed by a direct flight of 5.5 hours.  What does one do when confined to a seat for over 5 hours - watch movies.  We watched Ford vs. Ferrari and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.   After touching down in Portland, we had a two hour drive to our rental home. 

Sunday morning, I woke up with a pain behind my right eye into my right ear and down the side of my neck. I figured I had probably strained a muscle from all the head tilting of watching the previous day's movies.  On Monday, I still had the pain, so I googled the symptoms and noticed that there was a chin tuck exercise that helped alleviate ophthalmic nerve pain.  It seemed to help.  I also noticed Monday that I had gotten some "bites" on my scalp that were bothersome.

Tuesday and Wednesday were about the same.  Eye and ear pain with the bites getting worse which I attributed to my wearing a ball cap most of the day.

Thursday morning I awoke with less pain but my right eye was blood shoot and swollen.  I decided to visit an urgent care as we were to fly home Saturday, and I didn't want to look this way getting on a plane.  Tammy came with me to the Tillamook Urgent Care but because of the covid restrictions was not allowed to go in with me.  I got through the registration process and initial nurse check up rather quickly.  Then I waited for about 45 minutes for the PA to see me.  I told her the history of my symptoms -- the pain and scalp "bites".  She did an assessment and said she would be prescribing a topical ointment for the scalp infections and drops for pink eye.  She said the nurse would be back to do a visual acuity test as a precaution.  I waited another 15 minutes for the test which was not a problem.  I then returned to the room for another 15 minutes.  When the PA returned, she said she was thinking about my symptoms as a whole as she was preparing the discharge papers and had changed her diagnosis.  She suspected shingles.  I was prescribed a different medicine and given an ophthalmologist appointment for later in the day as facial shingles can have detrimental affects to the eye.

Later Thursday afternoon, I returned alone to Tillamook for my eye appointment.  The eye looked fine, but eye drops were prescribed as a precaution.

All in all, I would say I had a pretty minor case of shingles as the worst pain occurred the few days before I was diagnosed.  I also believe getting it diagnosed and treated early was of great benefit in its lessening.  By the writing of this blog on Saturday, June 19, I would say I am pretty much symptom free.