hmmmm... to cap off the month just kinda sucking, I got shingles.

Last Friday I was super exhausted and went home sick, slept for 14 hours and still felt tired... by Tuesday night a rash showed up on my back. At first I thought it had to be some bug bites, but it was pretty painful. I decided to take advantage of my health insurance and went to the after hours clinic, hoping they would tell me something like "yeah, you're having a reaction to some flea bites," but as the title says it was not the case. The doctor lifted my shirt, made the "that's not good" hiss, and asked me if I'd had chickenpox.

I was given some general instructions, prescribed some antibiotics and sent home.

Burning, stinging pain doesn't do it justice. Because it's attached to the nerves, my whole left side feels like I've been pummeled repeatedly. I would describe the pain of the rash kinda like when you get a tattoo and it's the final pass of color, when your skin is already raw and swollen from having a comb of needles stab it a million times already. While it's not the worst pain I've ever felt, it's up there and it's just constant. The slightest movement can set it off, if anything brushes my back just slightly I get fresh waves of burning pain. Add to it the lymph nodes in my left armpit are swollen up so even having my arm in a relaxed position is uncomfortable...

If you have the option to go get a shingles vaccine I highly encourage you to do it. This shit sucks, you do not want to deal with it, even a minor case.