We talked to our friend Joe this morning and mentioned Katherine's shingles situation. He, being the caring friend that he is, consulted with his father, a doctor. Joe's dad then called us and said that Katherine needs to go to the ER right away to get antivirals. (Yay, I was right... and not overly enthusiastic!) So, we did, and Katherine got antivirals and pain patches in case her pain gets worse. She has to take 4 large blue pills every 4 hours for the next week.
I'm happy that we went. I feel better now, and I think she does too. She did tell me, on the way to the ER, that she was having more pain than yesterday. My reaction was, "And why didn't you tell me this earlier?" I just have to shake my head and be glad that she'll listen to others if not me. :)
5 comments:
Did he say why he recommended the Er right away? I wouldn't have thought of that as an emergency but this is good stuff to know.
The sooner you treat shingles, the less likely you are to develop post-herpetic neuralgia. Also, if if affects your trigeminal nerve and you get the rash on your face, it's bad - chance of affecting eyes. It's not necessarily an emergency, you just need to get started on anti-virals fairly quickly.
That makes sense. Have you heard of any links between that and Bell's Palsy? I think I've had one pt w/shingles, but they put therapy on hold until it cleared up.
I just called G&G to wish Grampa an early b-day. He sounds very proud to be 80; it was nice. Gramma's doing better but says she can't have any more injections; is thinking about asking if therapy would be good at this stage. Grampa's spent time in Bakersfield but doesn't remember a lot about it.
Congrats on completing your psychiatry rotation. I hope you get your first choice once you start applying. My goal for this week is to get out some resumes to my top job choices and complete my license application so all I'm waiting on is the paperwork from Creighton.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)
I am glad that Katherine listened to Joe's dad finally and went to the ER. Shingles can be soooo painful. Thanks Amy for taking good care of Katherine even when she doesn't want it.
My sympathies on the horse pills.
I wonder if there's any research about shingles turning up in younger folks AND turning up more frequently. I keep hearing about the most unlikely targets...
Post a Comment