shingles – Margaret's Corner

When I first began blogging, in March of 2007, a more experienced blogger informed me that I had to publish a post every day in order for my blog to be visible on Google and not be deemed “inactive.” If I stopped writing and publishing, even for ONE day, he added, my blog be more difficult to find on the search engines, meaning that I’d lose my readership. He talked about blogging as though it were a competition.

Well, I didn’t care about competing with other bloggers and/or becoming THE most popular myeloma blogger (!), but I did want to reach and possibly help as many people as possible, so I tried very hard to write and publish a post every day. Not easy, when you have “distractions,” such as a loving hubby, a job, a bunch of cats needing attention and care…and so on and so forth….

At a certain point, though, I decided, ENOUGH. I wanted to enjoy my life outside the blog. I’d done enough research to last almost an entire lifetime and, to be honest, I was sick and tired of reading scientific jargon every single day…

Plus, sometimes I didn’t know what to write about/had writer’s block. Writing became a bit of a struggle, even though I have to acknowledge that it’s only thanks to my blog that I have discovered how much I love writing…

Anyway, back then, in short, I needed a break.

And so I took a break from blogging. Just as I’d been warned, my readership dropped. Day by day, practically. It’s now down to less than a third of what it was in the “golden years.” But I didn’t care. I was outside, breathing fresh air, enjoying life, with plenty of time to spend with my friends…and so on and so forth. 😉

Mind you, I still had, and have!, a lot of readers writing to me with their questions and findings. In fact, many of them have become friends in real life, which is just wonderful. I also still had and have a lot of mail to sort through on a daily basis…often so much (mail) that I cannot reply to everyone, and for that I apologize.

Recently, though, I’ve been coming across some really interesting and/or promising stuff, which I’ve found on my own or thanks to blog readers (you know who you are, THANK YOU), such as:

the bone marrow microenvironment studies
the EBV-MM connection
Dieneke’s case study getting published in the UK (yaaaay)
andrographolide
the Chinese MM patient’s case study
astragalus

There seems to be a lot going on, which is very exciting. Inspiring, in fact. And for a while I almost got back to a post/day… 😉

But ever since Stefano came down with shingles (he’s better now, btw, but still in quite a lot of pain…hasn’t gone back to work yet), I haven’t felt much like writing. It’s so hard to see the person you love in such pain. His pain has had an effect on me, too.

I haven’t stopped doing research…But these days it’s been mostly on the natural ways to relieve the pain caused by shingles, and in fact the turmeric-based topical applications have really helped him. However, only prescription-strength Tylenol (the Italian equivalent) is able to reach the sort of INTERNAL nerve pain he has been experiencing…My poor sweetie!

BUT, of course, this negative period will soon be over. Stefano is already feeling better, and the awful rash is fading. That means that I’ll soon be back to blogging more. I’m already looking at a couple of studies on my desktop, hoping they’ll inspire me to write a post…

Okay, it’s time now to go check on my patient. Take care, everyone! CIAO! 🙂

Stefano had been complaining recently (last week) about a strange sort of pain/ache in his back that began more or less last Wednesday. We thought he’d pulled a muscle or some such thing. But the pain wasn’t going away. When he’d come home from work, and in the morning when he got out of bed, it was ouch-ouch-ouch. I suggested he at least call our GP, but he didn’t want to bother him. He really thought it was a pulled muscle. Then, on Saturday morning, he asked me to take a look. I found a little rash on the left side of his torso, but he said it wasn’t where the pain was.

And so I didn’t make the connection. Nor did he. Not until the rash had spread a bit, which it had by Saturday night. At that point, we both knew what it was, since his father and both of my parents had had it.

Shingles.

UGH!!!

In Italy it’s called Fuoco di Sant’Antonio in Italian, or fire of Saint Anthony.

Unfortunately, we had no way of getting in touch with our GP during the weekend, and my rather stubborn Stefano didn’t want to go to the ER. So he “lost” a day, since, without a prescription, I wasn’t able to get the antiviral drug (acyclovir) for him until Monday morning, after we’d contacted our fantastic GP. And by Monday morning, let me tell ya, the rash had spread all around his torso, in back and in front, and he was in a lot of discomfort.

Well, I didn’t wait until Monday to take action. On Sunday morning I made a paste with organic turmeric and a bit of water, which Stefano spread over the rash. Incredibly, the rash stopped burning and itching. It did NOT stop the rash from spreading, BUT the area covered by the turmeric paste didn’t burn or itch at all, whereas any new bumps that developed during the night itched and burned like crazy. Once he’d covered those bumps with the turmeric paste, though, the burning and itching disappeared completely.

This is how we knew it really worked.

And that’s why I’m writing this post today, with Stefano’s permission…because it’s a bit of good information that can be given to anyone who has shingles. As I noted, the turmeric + water paste will NOT stop the internal nerve pain caused by shingles (you need antiviral meds for that…), but it might stop the superficial burning and itching. I use the conditional tense “might,” because of course we all react differently, even to the same drug or treatment. But his case is a rather nasty one, and his skin should be itching and burning like mad. It’s not. Not at all.

The first few days (from Saturday night to yesterday morning) have been the most difficult. Last night he managed to sleep without any trouble. So I think the acute phase is over…And we can relax a bit…

Anyway, I’ve found another use for turmeric! Of course, it’s nothing new to Ayurveda…but it was to me! 🙂