Ireland day 1070. Monday 02 September 2024- Shingles

Today’s summary	Went to the GP this morning with shoulder and arm pain and a rash on my back. He confirmed that it was Shingles so now I am taking antiviral medication hopefully to ward off the worst symptoms. Took it easy for the rest of the day then went on a short walk in the demesne in the afternoon and had refreshments at Avoca. Watched final episode of “The Hour” series 1 in the evening. Val looking after me very well
Today’s weather	Overcast with rain more or less all day. Light north westerly breeze. Appx 17c

Today’s overview location (The grey mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Shingles demesne walk

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

In the middle of last week I noticed that I had a strange burning sensation in a couple of fingers of my left hand. I assumed I must have accidentally scalded them or got bleach on them, and thought nothing more of it. The discomfort did continue for a few days, though. Then, when we were on Valentia Island on Friday I thought my rucksack must be fitting badly because my left shoulder and arm started aching. I just thought that it would go away of its own accord once we got back to Malahide and I stopped carrying the rucksack.

I was aware of these various aches and pains over the weekend but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the whole thing at all – even though, on reflection, I think I did feel a bit sub-par at times. Well that was that and on arrival back in Malahide last night I put the whole thing out of my mind and got a good night’s sleep. That was until I woke up this morning and found I had red splotches on the left hand side of my torso and Val said that, rather to my alarm, I had them on the left of my back too.

I did a bit of googling , as you do, and quickly discovered that the only thing that easily explained all of my symptoms was the dreaded Shingles (actually it’s not that dreaded as lots of people I know have had it and eventually about a third of the human race gets it). I also read that if you can access antivirals in the first three days of an outbreak, the severity of the attack can be reduced. So I got onto the phone to the GP, left an “urgent” message for the receptionist, and ten minutes later was booked into a 12:00 slot.

Once the doctor heard my description of the symptoms and saw the rash, he immediately confirmed my suspicions – it was indeed shingles – and gave me a prescription for famciclovir – a powerful antiviral drug which should hopefully knock the bug on the head. I have to take it for a week.

He also explained that shingles is actually reactivated chicken-pox virus (varicella-zoster virus: I remember my mum had told me that I’d had it as an infant, though can’t remember it) and you can’t pass shingles on to anybody else. Though you can infect people who haven’t previously had chicken-pox, and they would catch chicken pox off you. But as around 95% of people have had chicken pox, it’s very unlikely to happen. Also, once the antiviral works in a couple of days, I will completely stop shedding infective virus. Nevertheless I have decided to cancel a trip to London that I was supposed to be making this week. I don’t want to take the chance of infecting anyone, and in any case, I am feeling a bit tired now and a few day’s down-time will probably aid recovery.

By the way – if you’re reading this in the UK – just be grateful for the NHS. The GP visit this morning cost me €70 and the prescription €100. Plus, if I had previously wanted to get vaccinated against shingles (although it’s too late now of course), it would have cost me €487 (if you are over 65, as I sadly am now, it would all be free in the UK). Well still it could be a lot worse and it’s a small price to pay for your health.

So the day’s excitement was all over by 1pm and the rest of the day was spent in the flat generally taking it a bit easy and being superbly looked after by Val. The fact that it has been raining all day made it easier to stay indoors. But later in the afternoon, we did decide to brave the elements and went for a gentle stroll round the demesne. We treated ourselves to coffee and cakes in the Avoca café as consolation for being ill. But in a throwback to the dark days of Covid, we sat outside well away from anyone else. (Val, by the way, as had chicken-pox so won’t catch it from me).

Time to call it a day now, I think, and finish off the evening with a bit of TV and probably also with the central heating on to help stay comfortable. We have one more episode of the first series of “The Hour” to watch, and that will top the billing for tonight’s viewing. As I begin to unwind a bit, I am reflecting on just how lucky we were with our Skellig Michael trip on Saturday. Firstly, that the weather wasn’t miserable like it is today, and second that the dreaded Shingles didn’t strike two days earlier. Fortune favours the brave, as they say.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


This was the sight that greeted me this morning. Feels more uncomfortable than it looks and it definitely wasn’t there yesterday	A rather bedraggled jackdaw was taking refuge from the rain on one of the seats in the demesne

Gardeners had been busy hollow-tining the playing fields, evidently. This is what happens to the bits that they take out	Val admiring the acacia tree in the courtyard outside the Castle visitor centre. I like it because it’s attractively shaped with nice leaves and best thing is that it flowers in January, making you think that Spring is on its way



Today’s reward for the invalid