By Gillian Ball

“Is there something on my face?” my mom asked. “Dad says he can’t see anything and there’s nothing there.”

Sorry, dad, I love ya, but you’ve got to get your eyes checked. Because it looked like someone threw a snowball at the side of my mom’s face, hitting her right where her nose meets her cheek. And not one of those fluffy snowballs made after a light snow dusting, but one packed tightly, bound by ice.

Figuring the annoying puffy red mark to be poison ivy, she went to work (at the elementary school) and straight to the school nurse. A couple hours later, after a trip to her own doctor, my mom was sent home from school like a little kid contagious with the chicken pox.   

But she’s not a little kid, and the rash is not chicken pox--it’s shingles.

Already banned from work for at least 10 days, she tries to cope with the thought of being stuck home in somewhat of isolation. (I say isolation, because at this point, my dad is as aware of his medical history as he is of rashes on my mom’s face, and can’t remember having chicken pox. Again, dad, still love ya.)

But her hopes are diminished when she discovers that she can’t even rely on her love of books, as her doctor warned that soon simply wearing reading glasses would cause unbearable pain.

As if my mom hadn't hit the jackpot already, having shingles on your face can have worse consequences. If the virus spreads to the cornea and the nerve endings in the eye, the cornea can be permanently scarred. The result: blindness.

The facts
Shingles is a viral infection caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox—varicella-zoster virus (VZV). This virus first enters the body when one has chicken pox, and although it lies dormant, it remains in the nervous system. Stress, disease or immune deficiency from aging can cause the virus to act up, resulting in shingles. Though anyone who has had the chicken pox can get shingles, it is more common for people around or over the age of 50. 

Shingles starts as a skin rash on one side of the body, accompanied by headache, fatigue or a tingling sensation. Eventually, the rash turns into blisters, which then fill with fluid and crust over. Although it is possible to not get a rash at all, it is very uncommon, and rashes can take up for four weeks to clear.

A person with shingles cannot spread it. She can, however, give chicken pox to someone who has not had chicken pox and has not been vaccinated. There is a vaccination for shingles, Zostavax, which the Centers for Disease Control recommends for people over 60. 

Here's a podcast from the CDC  about the vaccine.

There is no cure for shingles, but antiviral medicines can aid the healing process, and pain medicines and skin creams can help alleviate some of the pain.
   
But if you ask my mom, the pain medications don’t quite measure up when it comes to the burning, shooting and stabbing pain of shingles. 

Weakness and fatigue can also be severe. And the pain can last long after the blisters have healed.

It’s been five weeks since my mom got shingles, and although she has her eyesight, she still has to nap every day. And in her words, she is still “very aware of her face.”

READ MORE:
These sites offer further info on shingles.

Centers for Disease Control

WebMD