Another Odd Diagnosis

I woke up last Thursday with a red spot on my nose, a severe headache, face pain, and neck pain. I have dealt with pain before but this pain was on the left side of my face of course it occurred going into a holiday weekend. So over that weekend I had left and right sided pain and I could not for the life of me figure out what it could be. The pain started to diminish as the week progressed and I could not get an appointment with my GP so I road it out for a week before getting a diagnosis. I even thought of cancelling my appointment but Gary said “you always do that never follow up – trying to down play your health” and he was right. I tend to think I must be making too much of this or that or I’ll wait because it will just go away. Finally I had an appointment with my GP on Thursday morning and she really surprised me with something very obvious: Shingles or Trigeminal Neuralgia. I started laughing of course yes that makes perfect sense how I could be so narrow minded. I did have Shingles once before following a very stressful situation I got myself into. Long story short a hiker’s partner had fallen off the rock face at the Delaware Gap steep cliffs by Stroudsburg. After being flagged down and begged by the climber’s partner I climbed the mountain to see if I could assist. Unfortunately the man had died before I made it to the top but just a few weeks following the climb I broke out in Shingles. I need to find another way to reduce my stress level rather than holding in or bottling up everything that causes me distress. I am on a Shingle medication, going to see the eye doctor to make sure there is nothing affecting my sight and making sure it does not get worse or turn out to be Trigeminal Neuralgia