I got a crash course on the shingles the other day.

My mom, who is 81, was stricken with the shingles last Friday and didn’t go to the doctor until Saturday morning.  That’s after battling the eye infection I was writing about earlier last week. That cleared up, but she broke out with the shingles soon afterwards. Could there be a connection?  Who knows?

She’s going to be fine now thanks to new medication.  A lot of improvements have been made in the last thirty years since my grandmother had it on her face. 

But I have to point out something good that happened throughout our latest  health ordeal. 

My mom had to go to the emergency room and thank goodness, they were very nice to her.  She came back telling us how considerate and helpful they were and how they cared not only for the illness, but for the person.  That’s what is the most important ingredient in a healing, according to me.  You need a little dosage of love and genuine care to go with the medication.

I’ll mention the emergency room here because I think they deserve the good pitch.  It was St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville. 

Getting back to the shingles- I didn’t know it can be contagious under certain circumstances. 

If a person has never had  chicken pox they can contract chicken pox from a person who has the shingles.  If you have had chicken pox you can not get the shingles from another person.  However, shingles can flare up because it remains dormant inside you for your lifetime.

Here’s more interesting information about the shingles 

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