thank heaven for zosters.

I have shingles.

More correct term, Herpes Zoster. Less freaky when we just call it adult chicken pox.  Because even though we all think of it as an elderly disease, this does happen in young adults and this is how it started for me-  Thanksgiving day. I had a sore spot on my back and thought, oh no, one of those deep painful zits and gee, no big deal.. I'll just wait it out.  So I just kept through my fantastic family turkey day and tried to ignore the throb.  After filling my face with potatoes and laughing with the ones I love, I realized anytime my shirt touched my back, it was way too unbearable to be a zit. I got back home to my apartment and searched my back in the mirror to find two quarter sized spots that were reddish brown.  BUHhAAH! Seriously?! There was nothing there that morning but a mild pain throb.  My only thought was I am now the lastest victim of the brown recluse spider.  I couldn't help but start imagining my back turning into a big black hole.  I googled everything about it and after some ridiculous search results, I narrowed my more than painful spine spot to either a spider bite or a wild random bruise.  After a restless night, I was casually talking to my coworkers about it that morning and they told me to call my dermatologist.  It was a slow day at the bank so I went into the backroom and called my dermatologist.  "Get to a clinic or emergency room as soon as you can,  it could be a sign of skin cancer" ... BUHhAAH again!! Who says that?! I immediately took my lunch early and was just about in tears.  All I could think about was why did I use so many tanning beds.  It was never worth this.....  After sitting through several nurses trying to figure out what it was, the doctor finally came in and did several light scans.  He told me I had shingles.  My first reaction was to just hug him! I couldn't have been more happier it wasn't skin cancer.  He explained the way the virus stays in all of us when we have chicken pox as children, but sometimes through stress or old age, the virus can awake from being dormant and cause a terrible episode of rashes. He congratulated me for getting in so early and explained another 24 hours to it and it would have been a lot harder to treat.  My doctor left me with antibiotics and pain medication, and I left with the most grateful heart of not having skin cancer.  Though I couldn't stop laughing at the fact I had been diagnosed with an old person disease!

BUT this story does have a moral-
Do not use tanning beds.  If you're white, you're white.  If you're dark, you're dark. If you're green, that's gross. But any which way you are, live up to that and show the world how you can rock who YOU are.  I tossed my tanning goggles today and finished up the last of my antibiotics.  It was a wonderful November and an even better Thanksgiving because I had a lot to be grateful for.