Shingles

My boyfriend has something called Herpes Zoster, more commonly known as Shingles. If you're like me, clueless about what this disease is, it's this:

"Herpes zoster (or simply zoster), commonly known as shingles, is a viral diseaseblisters in a limited area on one side of the body, often in a stripe. The initial infection with varicella zoster virus (VZV) causes the acute (short-lived) illness chickenpox, and generally occurs in children and young people. Once an episode of chickenpox has resolved, the virus is not eliminated from the body but can go on to cause shingles—an illness with very different symptoms—often many years after the initial infection." (Wikipedia article)

He has it concentrated on the left side of his head, extending up into his scalp and down to the top of his neck. At first, we worried he had the type of shingles that attacks the eye, too, since his first symptom was excruciating pain in his left eye, but then he went to see an ophthalmologist who said it didn't seem to be affecting his eye. But last night he told me his eye was beginning to swell... I really, really hope it doesn't affect his eye because I read online that this can result in temporary blindness or even permanent blindness. The pictures I've seen of this type of shingles are truly frightening.

Shingles isn't contagious, but if you've never had chicken pox and are exposed to someone with shingles, you can get chicken pox. I've never had chicken pox, neither has my mother or younger brother. We suspect we might be immune. To my knowledge, I've never had a vaccine for chicken pox, so that means I can't see Ricky until his Shingles is gone. That can take 3-5 weeks. :( My parents have to look through my medical records to see if they find a record of my immunization papers, to see if I am indeed vaccinated against chicken pox. But they don't remember any vaccine like that, and I'm inclined to agree with them.

Ricky and I had to cancel our trip to Connecticut this weekend for our friends' wedding, Neha and Chandan. It was to be our first Hindu wedding and our first time in New York, as we planned to spend Sunday - Tuesday in New York. But I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I know I should use this time to focus on my thesis. After all, the summer is quickly running out and soon I'll have to worry about the impending school year. I'm switching rooms again, this time into the other building, so I'll have to move everything and get my new room organized. As exciting as it is, I know it will be incredibly draining, as well.

First I need to clean my room. There's something in me that doesn't let me concentrate when I have a messy room. Only when it's clean am I able to work. I'm weird like that, I guess.

A bit of good news before I close - two of my AP English students wrote me today to let me know they got their AP scores in the mail. They both got 4's (the highest score is a 5), so that made me really happy. I only hope the rest of my students did as well.

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