Shingles

Its five minutes to 9 in the evening and I'm sitting at the dining table looking on at Adam and Risa playing Ben 10 monopoly. Can't believe that they can be that noisy. I hope this noise would not be replace by wailing or crying tomorrow. Adam has been infected by Shingles. It is caused by the same virus as chicken pox. Unlike chicken pox, blisters in Shingles will not appear throughout the body. It'll appear only on the path of the nerve that is infected. As for Adam's case, his blisters is appearing in his right leg. It is at the back of the leg and stretched from his calf to the area around his anus. The blisters looked quite bad and I read that soon it'll be filled with blood. I'm afraid that since Shingles affects the nerve, it might cause Adam a great deal of pain.

We went to the doctor today. As it was a Monday, the clinic was quite busy. We waited for some two and a half hours to see the doctor. After diagnosing Adam, she gave Adam 7 days of medical leave. I'm sure any parent would be taken aback by the number of medical leave given. Being a non-medical person, the length of medical leave would correspond to how serious the sickness is. The longer the medical leave, the more serious is the sickness.�

We got a scare in the evening, Adam cried saying that he can't walk. I was psyching myself up to spend the rest of the day at the hospital. As it turned out, it Adam's crying for attention from his mother who has just returned home. It was comical, the dramatics and the reactions from both mother and son, but it was very apparent, the concern faces of Risa and Su.�

He is limping now, walking on the ball of his right feet. I hope he'll be better.

The cases of swine flu around the world has really given me the jitters. During SARS and the bird flu scare, I wasn't this afraid. But after feeling what I felt when I first heard Adam's diagnosis, I know I could never empathized with the families and loved ones of those that were infected with the diseases.�

I pray all goes well.