The Freeman Family: Shingles update

My shingles are unfortunately still hanging around. The past few days have been pretty bad when it comes to pain. I went to the doctor last week for some pain medicine, but only took one pill last week and that was enough for me. I didn't feel right after taking it and was very dizzy and had to go lay down. I was suppose to take the pain meds three times a day. There is no way I could have done it! I only took the one pill and had to lay down for an hour and it took me almost 5 hours to actually feel normal again. I'm so bad about medicine anyway, and if I don't need to take it, I usually don't. I'll just suffer through the pain.

My lower back hasn't hurt for over a week, but it did start hurting again last night. My t shirt rubbing against my stomach/side is so painful and if I could walk around the house in just my bra, I would. That's how bad it is. But, with the guys working on the house, that's not a possibility.

The patches on my skin have changed from red to a darker red and are starting to dry up. They never did blister, which I think is a good sign. I wish they would hurry up and leave my body so I can start to feel normal again!

As I mentioned earlier, I went to the doctor last week to get some pain medicine, and since my primary doctor is pretty much impossible to get an appointment with, I made an appointment with Mike, the physician's assistant. I figured it he would be some young man that was just starting his career (thinking of Jodi at this point!), but boy, was I wrong! I'm waiting in the exam room when there is a knock on the door and in walks a big man, 60-ish, with a gray beard wearing a short sleeve button up shirt, dress pants, and suspenders! He walked in with a "How-ya doin kiddo"? Let's just say I was pleasantly suprised when I met him. He proceeded to tell me that he'd had shingles twice in his life and that they hurt like hell. He said the only other pain that he's had worse than shingles was kidney stones. He gave me a prescription and told me to take the pain medicine three times a day and I was out the door. From the time I walked into the building until the time I walked out was under 20 minutes. It was the best doctor's visit I've had in a very long time. In the future, I'm going to be asking for an appointment with Mike and not even dealing with the doctors!

On a side note, I called Mom last week to tell her about my wonderful (who calls doctor's appointments wonderful, anyway?!?!) doctor's appointment, and she then proceeded to tell me that the Mike I saw was actually from Palmyra. Small world!!! I would highly recommend Mike King at Jacksonville Family Healthcare for anyone that's interested.

Ainsley likes to get on top of you and jump and wrestle with you if you're laying on the floor, and I feel bad because I have to push her off of me, because it hurts my stomach so bad where she'll rub against my shingles. It also still hurts to carry her on my hip where my shingles are, so I try to put her on my left hip, but it's not very comfortable holding her that way! I want to be able to do normal things with my baby again without hurting while I do them!

She's been walking around the house for the last few days putting one of her hats on. I love her new independence of wanting/trying to put articles of clothing on. She's even been going around the house to find pairs of my shoes and will bring them into the living room and try to put them on her feet. She was trying to walk down the hallway the other day wearing a pair. I guess maybe it's time to pull out some of her dress up shoes I have in the closet for her to play with.

She's all girl. Loves to play with my brushes, makeup, clothes, and shoes!

Trying to get her hat on

She gave up...the tv was more important. Notice: her big toe sticking up?!?!

Little Einsteins is now her favorite cartoon, even over Mickey Mouse and she'll walk around the house patting her legs/stomach and then raising her arms in the air (to blast off). She gets pretty mad when you don't change the channel to Little Einsteins, and she'll pat her stomach even harder and cry and whine until you finally change the channel or divert her attention to something else.