shingles vaccine/where I've been

[Guest guest]

Hey Rose and all my sarc friends----

I know it's been ages since I've been on here. Between June 29 and Mar. 2, I spent 220 days(yes, 220 days) either in a nursing home/rehab center, with @ 6 weeks of that time hospitalized. I've been to hell and back. The earliest problems came from gout(which I had never had before) and osteoarthritis. I was in horrible pain when the doc took me off Celebrex>My legs and feet swelled and turned red and looked and felt like they would explode.

I was well enough to get out in Oct. to attend the Indy Sarc Retreat and then was back with the pain again. I made it home for 3 weeks and then went back to the hospital, this time with a combined heart, sleep apnea, and medication dosage problem. This time I was on a respirator for a week and my husband bought us cemetery plots! Well, I rallied and it was back to the nursing home for half of Dec. - Mar. 2. Knock on wood, I want to stay here. While I was there in Jan., my husband had a nasty flare in his cancer(doubled in size and wrapping around his colon). The doctors basically said there was nothing to do. He signed a DNR. They brought in Hospice and then sent him to the same nursing home I was in. Well, he showed them all. He's stronger and healthier than he's been in months.

Now to the topic of shingles. Gout was very painful and then while I'm in the h ospital I picked up the MRSA virus. After that shingles hit mid-Jan. and I'm still dealing with it. I had scabs in my right eyebrow up to 4 inches into my hairline. Luckily it didn

't go into my eye itself, but I dealt with the neuropathy associated with it. Pain would shoot from the top of my head and curve around to the side of my eyelid. Several weeks into the shinges, I saw an ad for Lyrica, but the ##%% nursing home doc didn't even bother to see me until I was dismissed. I've been on it a couple weeks and do see improvement. He didn't know if someone who'd already had shingles(this was my second time) could get the vaccine. I'm going to check with more dependable doctors.

Is anyone going to the TN sarc retreat this weekend? I want to, but now I have pink eye to get over. I think my immune system is just shot.

Everyone take care!

Kay Pullen

Re: numbness and painDate: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:32:00 -0000

>I agree, that numbness will be the start of a flare-up and the PAIN I also avoid pain killers i donot want anymore meds in my system. And I refuse presc. pain killers. I am in a flare up now and i also find a chickenpox type of rash. does anyone else experience this? Anne> Marla, numbness is usually a sign for me that a flare-up is on the> way. If not controlled (steroids are what work for me) then paralysis> of something is on the way. Pain is a constant. It's the hardest part> for me. Coping with pain every day. I am loath to take pills and tend> to put up with it, rather than be doped up. I am so sorry you are> having to go through this. It is very hard when every day activities> are made so difficult by disease. Hugs to

you.>

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