Hehe it's been a while since I penned one of these, and now that I'm stuck at home with a case of shingles, I thought I'd write about being thankful for my health and for the many people around me who are healthcare professionals.
Maybe it takes being unwell to make you truly appreciate how wonderful it is to be healthy. I'm able-bodied, and generally have good health. Even when I had high blood pressure readings, I was able to keep that under control thanks to my TCM doctor.
I found out I had shingles a few days ago, and along with the rash that seems to be getting worse (I think that it's the natural progression of things), the accompanying nerve pain is really quite hard to bear. My doctor gave me panadol, but that didn't seem to keep the pain away for too long.
Knowing that I shouldn't be taking too many panadols, I opted to take ibuprofen (a much stronger painkiller) to help manage the pain. I reckoned that taking less of a stronger pill would be better than taking too much of a not so strong one.
It was the weekend and the clinic was closed, but while I was pretty sure my reasoning on managing my pain was sound, I still had some doubts. Self medicating when you have a virus attacking your nerves seemed a little risky.
Thankfully I had a couple of friends in the medical profession whom I could ask about dosage and thankfully, I was on the right track. Knowing the parameters on how much medication I should be taking made me feel safer about my decisions and less worried that I was turning into a pill popping painkiller addict.
So while I still need to see the doctor tomorrow (Monday), I'm glad I made it through the weekend with relatively few tears (I think only 2 episodes where I broke down and cried because the pain was too much to bear).
Now let's hope I get better and that the rashes won't scar too badly (or at all)!
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