Tag Archives: Herpes zoster

Word Of The Day: Bedridden

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I couldn’t think of anything to write today, so I looked at my recent situation and decided there was no other way to describe it: bedridden or bedbound.

From Pinterest

A bedbound person still retains some limited movement and can actively participate in their care, such as repositioning or feeding themselves. A bedridden person is completely confined to bed with minimal to no mobility, 

Let me reiterate and I’m not being melodramatic at all; shingles/herpes zoster is not something you can ignore.

Most things I don’t take very seriously; an injury, a fall, a brief bout of the flu or a sore throat, but THIS was lifechanging.

The pain is really indescribable, and now I understand why I felt paralyzed when I had it as a child; it’s really that overwhelming. I’d show you the photos I took of every stage of the rash that covered my entire right side, but it’s too gross to share.

For the past two weeks, I’ve literally not been able to walk, to move, to exist — without extreme torment, and that’s not an exaggeration. Waiting too long to inform my doc so that she could prescribe an antiviral was completely stupid of me.

Now that I’m nearing the end of this disease cycle, it’s time to reflect on what it means to be bedridden or bedbound, because for me, not being active is hell on earth.

Not being able to go for walks or work out is torture. I lay there in agony, thinking about how my muscles and joints were actively atrophying from disuse, and that just added to my depression. The garden suffered too, since I couldn’t water anything and we’ve had no rain for months. It looks sad and dismal, kind of how I feel.

The antiviral meds made me extremely fatigued, so I honestly couldn’t move no matter how badly I wanted to force myself.

I was bedridden, or more accurately, sofaridden, because the sofa was slightly more comfortable than my bed.

Spiritually, pain is widely viewed as a catalyst for growth, a profound teacher, or a signal of energetic imbalance. Rather than mere suffering, many traditions frame pain as an invitation to look inward, release resistance to change, and align more deeply with your authentic self.

I’m not too sure about that. What I have learned is to call for medical help sooner, to stop being so stubborn, and to get the shingles vaccine. No way I want to repeat this lesson. I got it. Message received.

“Darling, Be Home Soon”

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I’ve been waiting…..for the great relief of having you to talk to...

Pain is a crazy thing; it has a life of its own, it takes over every minute of every day, and that’s all you can think of — it’s like oceans of pain with no relief.

Anyway, stubborn me finally called the doc to tell her I had shingles. She immediately called in a prescription for an anti-viral. She said I’m a bit outside of the 72 hour window for it to be totally effective, but she hoped it would still work to relieve the intense burning and stabbing pain and shorten the duration of this cycle of hell.

I can’t get comfortable, I can’t lie on my back or my right side and sitting is also excruciating, so I’ve given up attempting to find the least tortuous position. I’m sick of watching TV, too. Sleep is elusive because I can’t get comfortable.

Awake at 3am, these lyrics were swirling around in my delirious brain…“darling, be home soon…”

I couldn’t remember what song it came from, so I opened my computer and searched. I learned that it was originally written and performed by John Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful for the soundtrack of Francis Ford Coppola’s film You’re a Big Boy Now, and another version included in the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour.

Not only was our magical Leon Russell a brilliant songwriter, composer, pianist, and singer, his arranging skills were off the chart.

Here’s the original of Darling Be Home Soon by the Lovin’ Spoonful and the Leon Russell version with Joe Cocker of the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour.

Bonus! Master of Space and Time, Leon Russell, on guitar. You beauty!

They lyrics are quite poignant and as beautiful now as they were in the 60s…

Come and talk of all the things we did today
Here and laugh about our funny little ways
While we have a few minutes to breathe
And I know that it’s time you must leave

But darling be home soon
I couldn’t bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdled
My darling be home soon
It’s not just these few hours but I’ve been waiting since I toddled
For the great relief of having you to talk to

And now, a quarter of my life is almost passed
I think I’ve come to see myself at last
And I see that the time spent confused
Was the time that I spent without you
And I feel myself in gloom

So darling be home soon
I couldn’t bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdled
My darling be home soon
It’s not just these few hours but I’ve been waiting since I toddled
For the great relief of having you to talk to

So darling…
My darling be home soon
I couldn’t bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdled
My darling be home soon
It’s not just these few hours but I’ve been waiting since I toddled
For the great relief of having you to talk to

Go and beat your crazy head against the sky
Try and see beyond the houses and your eyes
It’s OK to shoot the moon

Darling be home soon
I couldn’t bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdled
My darling be home soon
It’s not just these few hours but I’ve been waiting since I toddled
For the great relief of having you to talk to

What’s The Cosmic Message? Full Moon? Mercury Retrograde?

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Which gods could I possibly have offended?

I don’t know what crime I could have committed to justify this shingles pain in my leg, but I’m SORRY. The agony is unrelenting, which is making me delirious. It feels like being stabbed with a thousand cattle prods, not that I know what that feels like, of course.

In addition to the Full Strawberry Moon, we’re dong another Mercury Retrograde until July 23, this time in the emotional sign of Cancer, and because of that, the focus is largely on internal and emotional processing rather than just external tech and travel glitches (though those can still happen).

The powerful combination of the Strawberry Moon and Mercury Retrograde brings a period of reflection, emotional healing, and personal transformation.

The Strawberry Full Moon symbolizes abundance, sweetness, gratitude, and the harvest of early summer. From Indigenous traditions, the name honors the peak season for wild strawberries. Spiritually, it invites us to celebrate our hard work, savor the present, and release patterns that no longer serve.

I really wanted to delve into any other reasons for this debiliiating nerve issue…

Spiritually, shingles is widely viewed as a profound mind-body wake-up call, often signaling that your nervous system is deeply depleted and that you have been ignoring your body’s quieter warnings to slow down.

Shingles are indicated by their telltale blisters: angry, painful wounds rising from beneath the skin. It is something hidden deep within that is deciding, right now, to rise to the surface to be seen and felt.

Shingles often flare up after prolonged periods of intense stress, emotional exhaustion, or unresolved trauma. It represents internal turmoil—such as hidden grief, suppressed anger, or guilt—rising to the surface to be acknowledged.

So all of that led me to wonder why it was only on my right leg, and why that’s the side I injured when I fell UP…

In many holistic and metaphysical traditions, injuries on the right leg symbolize an imbalance related to taking action, moving forward in the world, or masculine (yang) energy. The right side of the body generally represents the “doing” side, while the left side is the “feeling” side .

Core Spiritual Themes of Right Leg Injuries:

Resistance to Moving Forward: Because the legs provide locomotion, repeated right leg injuries may suggest a subconscious hesitation to take the next step in your career, relationships, or life path. You may feel “stuck” in a specific situation.

Masculine Energy Imbalance: The right side is traditionally associated with “yang” or masculine energy, which governs drive, assertiveness, and logic. Injuries here might point to a struggle with assertiveness or conflict with male figures in your life .

Root Chakra Imbalance: The legs and hips are governed by the root chakra (Muladhara), which controls your sense of physical safety, stability, and grounding. Injuries here can indicate a deep-seated fear of instability or an inability to feel grounded in your daily life.

While all of that is interesting information, none of it helps to relieve this agony. I stupidly decided not to take an anti-viral medication because the potential side effects seemed scarier than anything. Instead, I’m using calamine lotion, witch hazel compresses. antihistamine cream, and Tylenol, which offer slight comfort.

I cannot wait for this torture to be OVER!

    How Do You Fall UP a Flight of Stairs? And Complications…

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    What I thought was yet another stupid and avoidable injury has turned out to be more serious –and way more annoying.

    I did pull a muscle in my lower back and groin, but there’s a new complication that’s really not fun.

    Here’s how it all started and it involves stairs again…

    Don’t ask me why, but I was running UP a flight of wooden stairs holding a box of trash in my hands. I was wearing flipflop type slippers which caught on one of the steps, causing me to fall forward in a very awkward and twisty position. I didn’t want to drop the box of trash so my left forearm took the brunt of the fall and it ended up cut, bloody, and bruised. The back pain started a bit later and like I usually do, I ignored it, but this time it got worse.

    A few days later, my right thigh became numb to the touch, so along with the pain, this was a whole new weird symptom.

    It turned out to be a groin pull accompanied by thigh numbness which might indicate nerve compression or a severe muscle tear in the hip region. It is often caused by irritation of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (causing outer thigh numbness)

    It’s called Meralgia Paresthetica.This condition involves a pinched nerve where it passes under the groin ligament. Meralgia paresthetica is also known as lateral femoral cutaneous nerve entrapment. Moralgia paristhetica is basically a pinched sensory nerve near your hip crease. Apparently it’s not dangerous but it can be extremely annoying.

    But it gets worse…

    In the middle of the night, it felt like my left leg was being bitten by some sort of insect or a thousand insects. I jumped up and immediately turned on the light to check the sheets and my PJs for any signs of a bug, but there was none. What I saw was a very very itchy rash and wheals all the way down the inside of my leg. I figured it was a case of spontaneous urticaria (hives) or contact dermatitis, but I hadn’t changed my laundry detergent and the rash was localized to only one leg, so at that point, I was puzzled.

    That’s weird, I thought to myself. I took Claritin and when that didn’t work, I took some Benadryl to stop the itching, and that just made me sleepy.

    I found some PT exercises to work on the pinched nerve issue (do you know where this is going?) and that did offer some relief.

    However, the pain was so overwhelming at night that I gave in and took some children’s ibuprofen and while it did help, ultimately it turned out to be a huge mistake because I really don’t tolerate Nsaids well, not at all.

    And now this morning when I woke up, the outside of my leg was itchy and tingly, and when I looked, there was a cluster of the same red rash and wheals.

    That’s when it finally dawned on me that this was no ordinary spontaneous urticaria–it looked suspiciously like the beginning of herpes zoster — SHINGLES!!

    I also feel generally crappy and tired, not my usual peppy self. The rashes haven’t yet progressed to the gross stage of blistering, but a couple of them look angry enough, so I’m expecting the next phase…

    Physical trauma or injury—such as a fall — can trigger shingles. When localized physical trauma stimulates a specific nerve, it can cause the dormant chickenpox virus, resting in nerve roots, to reactivate. This leads to a shingles outbreak directly at the injury site. (From NIH)

    OMG.

    I never had chicken pox, but when I was ten years old, I had shingles on the back of my left leg. My doctor called me a medical miracle because children don’t normally get this viral disease, but all I remember is being virtually paralyzed and in excruciating pain. I couldn’t walk, I was carried from room to room and even the lightest touch of a sheet was enough to make this little princess scream in agony.

    I guess I’ll call my doctor tomorrow and have her prescribe an antiviral along with keeping my hands away from my face so I don’t inadvertently infect my eyes or mouth.

    In case you’re wondering, I didn’t ever get the shingles vaccine because I thought I’d never get it again, but I might rethink that decision after this is all over.

    Sign me unhappy in SoCal…