The other day, I wrote that my experience with shingles has been somewhat mild, compared to many people. Some people go through an absolute hell dealing with the disease; especially elderly people. For older folks, shingles can turn into a condition called postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), which is basically a lifetime of constant pain caused by the shingles-related nerve damage.

For me, the pain is different every day… sometimes every hour. I didn’t go to work Sunday, I just spent the day hanging out, playing video games, and munching on Vicodin. Vicodin seems to help, one dose Sunday morning lasted a long time… but it makes me pretty groggy, and I can’t take it and go to work. Last evening, the pain was just kind of a dull ache, so I decided to take Motrin with me and return to work, hoping for the best.

About two hours after I got to work, once things got busy, the pain kicked in pretty hard. It was a burning, tingling pain, and it was pretty constant for a long part of the night.

I’ll try to rank the pain of shingles on a personal pain scale from one to ten. For context, a one would be someone stepping on my toe. The two things that come to mind for a ten are when I had a catheter removed after surgery, and when I got a third degree burn last autumn and they scrubbed it at the hospital. I’d rather go through almost anything than go through a “ten” again. Anyway, I’d say that the pain of shingles, at it’s worst, is a five or a six. The thing that makes it so bad is that it’s unpredictable and pretty constant when it kicks in. It’s a burning pain, and when it fades, it just fades to that dull ache I mentioned above. The ache is a paradise compared to the burning.

I’m kind of a crybaby when it comes to pain, and I can end up getting stomach-aches and head-aches because I stress about it. I only make things worse on myself by doing that, I know.

So I have three things to be hopeful about on the horizon: One is that shingles usually doesn’t come back once you beat it. The second thing is that, if it does come back, there are techniques that can be learned for dealing with chronic pain. I think I’m going to be part of the lucky majority and not have to worry about it again, but if it comes back worse, there are people who can help me deal with the pain. Thank God for them, and God bless them for what they do.

But the third thing I’m happy about is the advent of a new shingles vaccine, which will hopefully eradicate this damn ailment off the face of the earth. If you’re eligible for the vaccine, you ought to look into it. Shingles is no fun, and it’s worth your time to avoid it if you can.

This could end up being my "cause." A lot of people have a "cause," typically related to a personal experience of some sort. Maybe I'll become the anti-shingles guy. Point me in the direction of the pro-shingles guy, so he and I can have it out.