You burn out, then you burn up

The rest of November was an odd month and frankly, I'm glad its over and done with. Already low on energy, the last couple of weeks decided to tackle me with fatiguing health concerns that made me feel rather aged and rendered me far less functional in my AmeriCapacities, leaving me in a sort of dragging state of distress.

I was not the only one feeling out of sorts. The kids at open gym have begun to develop forewarned symptoms of Wintery Cabin Fever which includes an exponential increase in pestering about snacks, suddenly making stealth attempts to climb in/up/on every nook they know they are not allowed to and manifesting new ways to get out their stir crazy energy like this precarious mode of transportation (which did not end happily):

In an attempt to counteract everything hectic, I attempted a mini 3-week cleanse off coffee, alcohol and chocolate. This mostly just made me stressed and did not solve any of my concerns (although I have not gone back to a regular coffee diet). Amidst my preoccupation, I continued the norm schedule of Friday night bingo (including my ritual of losing at friday night bingo), hosting Karaoke (a feat of facade in my current condition and limitations) and our Thursday night mini-tutors (for which we finally have at least one regular student, a resilient teen girl who constantly fascinates me with her fortitude.)

On the fifteenth, AmeriFamily gathered at the Heritage House Senior Center to help with a Thanksgiving Brunch. We fested up the tables and lingered during the event to refill drinks and aid the kitchen staff when serving became overwhelming. A number of the guests praised the youthful presence we added to the scene.

On the Garden front, about a week before Thanksgiving, I heard from Loren, announcing that he'd confirmed permission to use an old garden plot on an elder local's land right in town by the post office. After my deflating meeting with the Superintendent, I was thrilled but it was quickly brought to my attention that this would not be a sustainable solution, should the man...well, kick the bucket.


To add to my months frustrations, my new "position" as part of the LC Thrives (formerly PMRAY.L) had seem to have fallen flat. Each month, I attend the meeting but my role to serve as a College Bound Scholarship promotional lieson for our area has yet to be put into action. As I have become more comfortable with the community, I would love to have some sort of engagement in the schools.

On the ride home from our last LC Thrives meeting, I was talking with Corey and the topic of Bedbugs came up, in which he described a grueling experience of his own. So later that day, when I found that an odd sensation I had been experiencing in my right arm was now coupled with red splotches on my chest, I immediately went into infestation panic. After hours WebMDing, I wasn't thoroughly convinced but threw everything in plastic bags to be washed anyway. I recruited the Facebooks to brainstorm and that night, I slept in my living room. The next day I had a ton of guesses on my wall and spent another afternoon scanning the web. Shingles became another close contender but by this time, I was so uncomfortable - intense burning shot up and down my right side - that I hunted down a Dermatologist, since I would be in the Portland area to pick up my mom in a couple days. At open gym, I talked to my teammates and the counselor Shiloh who was hanging around that day. Shiloh asked me if I had been stressed and I barely needed to pause to find the answer to that. My work was stress, my social life was stress and I slept on stress, waking up achier and achier everyday from a horrible mattress. After hearing my instant response, Shiloh placed her bet on Shingles - instigated by stress - and offered her counseling services to me at any time, free of charge.

On Thursday, I waited in Dr. Kjelstrup's office for at least twenty minutes but once I was taken in and exposed my back to her, I had a diagnosis in less than twenty seconds. "Shingles. I wouldn't even take a culture. This is a classic case. They got you good, too." The rest of the visit was a mini medical lesson in herpes zoster, the scientific name for my new burdensome buddy. Unrelated to the Herpes s.t.i., Shingles is a acute variation of the Chicken pox which slumbers in your spinal column if you were one of those luck kidos to get Chicken pox out of your system. The virus manifests in the nerves which is why I had been experiencing a mysterious combination of skin irritation and a deeper, aching pain. The scary bit (every medical thing has to have a scary bit) was that it had the potential to do permanent nerve damage, leaving some patients with its debilitating symptoms for years - sometimes lifetimes - after the visible symptoms go away. The doc reassured me that I was young enough (a rare thing) that it probably would not happen to me, especially since I caught it early and she was going to send me off immediately with a prescription for the anti-viral. Also unlike the chicken pox, this form of the virus was not contagious through breath but only through the markings on my skin so it didn't have to infringe on my work (more than it already was). I left feeling relieved that I had an answer and that it was not bed bugs. After reading about how hard bedbugs are to get rid of, I was glad that they were losing the vote. But I had no idea what shingles entailed....