Shingle Bells, Shingle Bells

Been a long time since I posted, and I wanted to get one in before the end of the year — perhaps even two. I recently recovered from shingles, and still have a tiny, itchy bit of rash to prove it. There’s even a bit of numbness lingering on the skin over my belly, no doubt from the nerve damage that is shingles’ gruesome signature.

If you are unaware of Shingles, you are susceptible to it if you’ve ever suffered from chicken pox. After the pox subsides, the virus that caused it lingers, lying dormant in the nerve cells along your spine. One day, as you approach middle years, it may manifest again as shingles. Chronic fatigue, undue stress, L-lysine deficiency and L-arginine surfeit (a diet high in chocolate and low in fish and eggs) are all conditions that can bring shingles (literally) to the surface. The only way to get shingles if you’ve never had chicken pox is through close contact (skin to skin) with someone  who has it.

I had never experienced nerve pain before — well, except for whacking my funny bone once or twice as a child — and I never want to experience it again. I can truthfully say this is the first time I’ve ever experienced prolonged nerve pain. I came down with it just before Thanksgiving, and the virus is only now subsiding.

I consider myself a fiery person: passionate, tempermental, excitable, and (for much of my life) rageful. I had never thought what it might feel like to have a conflagration traveling the nerve paths in my body, to feel stabbing and burning at the same time. The intensity of the pain brought me to tears over and over again. It also brought me emotional healing that perhaps could not have come any other way.

I believe every experience in life yields gifts — if I have the perceptiveness to see them. Shingles has been no exception. One great gift of this illness has been my sleep patterns returning to normal. I now regularly wake up in the morning, which is a profound change. For the past two years, I had severe insomnia. I would wake up whenever I woke up (usually long after noon), then stay awake the entire night, often not going to sleep until 6 or 7 am. I sometimes even forced myself to get up earlier, only to stay up even later. I tried natural sleep aids, including valerian capsules and myriad cups of chamomile tea, to no avail.

With shingles, my sleep patterns went completely haywire. I slept only when I could, which at first was hardly at all due to the pain. I slept once for 20 hours, then had a day or so where I could sleep only in three-hour increments. Now that the virus is (mostly) out of my system, I actually get sleepy at night, which is a big deal. I find myself nodding off before I expect to, and when I got to bed I actually sleep deeply, waking up usually after seven or eight hours.

Waking up earlier is a multi-layered gift. I get to have much more time in my day to accomplish my goals, and also allow myself the pleasure of taking my time. What a gift never to feel rushed! I never realized how much scrambling to make appointments, deadlines, airplanes and so forth added to my stress level. Today, for example, I have an appointment at 2 pm PST, and I am comfortably writing this blog entry in my new red-and-green flannel nightgown, feeling cozy and warm, knowing I can complete this and easily leave the house by 1:30, if not earlier. This seemingly small change is already yielding big benefits.

Another gift has been closer attention paid to my diet. I failed to eat enough protein, especially fish and eggs, instead relying on nuts and seeds. I also allowed chocolate back into my diet, and binged on it every so often. I know now that I need to cut way back on the chocolate and alternate starchy meals with fish or egg meals. Fish and eggs are high in L-lysine, an amino acid which can help prevent shingles. Chocolate is high in L-arginine, an amino acid which can cause a shingles outbreak. I can still have chocolate every so often, just not in large amounts and only if I remember to take my daily L-lysin capsules.

Another dietary gift is the realization of how healing my diet is in general. Instinctively I eat foods that are natural anti-virals, high in calcium, iron, and all manner of vitamins. Yay for me! Now I just need to reign in my love of sweets.

I have yet more gifts to list, and perhaps it’s appropriate to take a break here, and list them in a second post. My eyes and hands are tired, and I do need to get dressed before I leave the house. Well, perhaps “need” is a strong word, but I’d like to put on different clothes. It would be fun, and I love dressing up.

Thanks for reading. More later, I promise. Take care, and may your life find a marvelous balance that often spills over into joy.

~Love and Blessings,
Selene~