On Friday I noticed a strange rash on my right arm... Sort of like pimples. By Sunday morning it hadn't spread, but it wasn't getting any better, so I went to the local walk-in clinic.

The doctor took one look and said, "Ah, you have the shingles!"

(The shingles are a re-awakening of the chicken pox virus that lies dormant in your spine. Usually it happens in older people, but it can happen to younger people under stress or due to an illness).

So, I get a prescription for an anti-viral medication and some literature. (The assistant said, "Here's some information on Herpes!!" I'm like, WHAT????? "Oh," she says, "that's the technical name for shingles... Herpes Zoster." She damn near scared the bejezus out of me. Coincidentally, the medication I've been given (Valtrex) is also widely prescribed for genital herpes. I can only imagine what the people at the pharmacy think.

Anyway. I start taking the medicine. That afternoon, my leg starts to itch. I take a look and I have a hive about the size of my thigh. The next morning it is still there, so I get an apppointment that day to see my regular doctor, thinking that it may be an allergic reaction to the medicine.

Nope, he says. That stuff on your arm is definitely shingles, but I think that the leg is.... lyme disease.

Which may be what triggered the shingles in the first place, since my immune system was compromised.

Well, we don't know for sure yet... we're waiting for the test to come back. But the anitbiotics he put my on for lyme have definitely helped.

Strangely, while these illnesses are potentially serious, I seem to have been lucky enough to catch them early. I actually feel fine... the flu I had in February hit me harder than this.

But, damn.

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...Trot and Cap'n Bill were free from anxiety and care. Button-Bright never worried about anything. The Scarecrow, not being able to sleep, looked out of the window and tried to count the stars.

Shit.

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

My wife noted some of the late-stage symptoms are disorientation; confusion; short-term memory loss; inability to concentrate, finish sentences or follow conversations; and mental "fog."

Based on this, I have had lyme disease for YEARS. :-)

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...Trot and Cap'n Bill were free from anxiety and care. Button-Bright never worried about anything. The Scarecrow, not being able to sleep, looked out of the window and tried to count the stars.

based on those facts, I'm a lime!

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Dad was flammable

Sounds more like "pot-head disease." I suffered from that disease for nearly a decade.

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

did ya find a decent cure?

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Who knows what fear lurks in the hearts of men? MIKE BOBSICO KNOWS! And if you give him a decent tip when he delivers your mail , he might tell you.

what are we talking about again?

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Dad was flammable

Damn! Bummer!

I once got shingles in my trigeminal nerve, which is located in your face and down the jawline. Shingles aren't supposed to be communicable, but my dad got them at the same time-- in the same exact location. Weird.

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Actually, shingles are highly communicable, but usually only to immunocompromised people. I had shingles about a year after I finished treatment for cancer. I was away at summer camp with other kids who were either cancer survivors, or currently going through cancer treatment. I was immediately quarantined and sent home.

The interesting thing about shingles is that it is supposedly most commonly found in horizontal bands around the trunk of the body (chest/back/abdomen), but everyone I know who's had it has had it somewhere else (arm/jaw/etc). When I had it, it was also not a horizontal band around my trunk. It was... well, just try to imagine the very most uncomfortable place to have a painful rash for several days during the hottest part of the year. You'll probably guess correctly.

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I am a delicate fucking flower. https://beacons.ai/jesskent

I am quite lucky that the total area of the shingles is smaller than, say, a bar coaster. The pain has been minimal -- mostly an annoyance.

I thin one of the reasons I went to the clinic was that, besides the rash not healing, I was feeling odd random nerve twinges up and down my arm. Not frequently, but enough for me to say that something wasn't right.

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...Trot and Cap'n Bill were free from anxiety and care. Button-Bright never worried about anything. The Scarecrow, not being able to sleep, looked out of the window and tried to count the stars.

That was me trying to do that Darth Vader thing on you with the force. Apparently it's a bit weaker from way over here in Ohio.

My bad.

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100 pounds of shit in a 25 pound sack.

i get that alot after masterbaiting. just kidin, sory to here about youre lime diseese fuzyman, i hope you get well

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sex

your turning into a lime!

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Batman created by Bob Kane

If you die can I have some of your stuff?

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100 pounds of shit in a 25 pound sack.

I call the ribs!

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Batman created by Bob Kane

Sure, Gabe, you can have my collection of Celebrity Bellybutton Lint.

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...Trot and Cap'n Bill were free from anxiety and care. Button-Bright never worried about anything. The Scarecrow, not being able to sleep, looked out of the window and tried to count the stars.

He'd probably prefer to have your rubber bands.

(BTW, Gabe, I just told my wife about the megaball thing and she is now having reservations about letting you into our home.)

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

Gah! Quick, get him some sackcloth and a bell!

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This signature has performed an illegal operation and has been shut down.

Good news!

The lyme test came back negative.

So, the shingles are healing, and we have no idea what that blotch was.

We'll see what the doctor says on Monday.

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...Trot and Cap'n Bill were free from anxiety and care. Button-Bright never worried about anything. The Scarecrow, not being able to sleep, looked out of the window and tried to count the stars.

Blotch could've been a spider bite. I was only kidding about the brown recluse though.

I guess the blotch could've been just about anything, really.

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