THANKSGIVING, 2012

Can't believe that I got sick AGAIN while visiting one of my sons on a holiday.  I had pain under my shoulder blade on the Monday morning before Thanksgiving so went to the Emergency Room at about 3:30 a.m.  The ER doctor x-rayed me and did blood tests and couldn't find any problems so his decision was that I had pleurisy.  I doubted the correctness of that diagnosis, but took the prescriptions, had them filled and took them as directed.  He had told me to check with my primary care doctor - that would have been Dr. McHarney-Brown -- but she had been asked to leave Kymera which she did at the end of October.  I saw a doctor who was filling in for her who rushed into the room and announced that I had arthritis and to just have someone rub arthritis cream on my back and I'd be okay.  She never bothered to look at my back or even touch me!  I doubted this diagnosis even more as I'd had arthritis pain and knew it was nothing like this. 

It was actually a relief when I saw the evidence of shingles on my chest on Thanksgiving evening.  John and Vicky took me to the ER which was just a couple of blocks from John's house.  That doctor immediately recognized that it was clear evidence of shingles -- even though I'd had a shingles shot a few years prior to this.  I was able to get the prescriptions filled at an all-night CVS and began taking them immediately - except for the pain medication as I continued to take the Hydrocodone that had been prescribed by the doctor in Carlsbad.   When we returned to Carlsbad, I got an appointment with the doctor I'd seen at the Kymera facility.  She said the medicine was what I should be taking and did give me another prescription for the Neurontin as she said I should continue taking it.  She also told me to "find another doctor" as Kymera had not been able to find a doctor to take Dr. McHarney-Brown's place.  Vanessa McGee, a Physician's Assistant at Dr. Perkowski's office had been highly recommended to me, so I had my medical records transferred to her.  I saw her on Monday, December 2, and she told me to continue on the same meds - but also told me to take the Acyclovir  for another 10 days and gave me a prescription for that and, also, a steroid - Prednisone for 9 days.
Along with these medications and those that I had been taking, I am taking at least one pill almost every hour for a total of more than 20 pills a day!  The pain has stopped everywhere except in my breast.  It was so painful last night that I had to take a pain pill at 9:30 p.m. and then again at 3:30 a.m.  I've taken just one Advil today as the pain is not bad during the daytime -- just gets bad about the time the sun goes down.  Strange!!!  Just hope all this medication works and that it is the end of the "Holiday Syndrome" for me.