An Attack of the Shingles!
Shingles… What do you think it is? A type of flower? A type of bell? A type of disease?
Shingles is what Mrs. Brown, my band teacher, experienced. Last Monday, she woke up and noticed she couldn’t open her left eye! She looked in the mirror with her other eye and noticed that the left eye was swollen shut. Mrs. Brown immediately phoned 9-1-1, and she was sent to the hospital.
She was told that she had contracted the Shingles, the offspring (child) of Chicken Pox. If you have experienced Chicken Pox, the virus stays “asleep” in your body and turns up anytime as Shingles. Unlike Chicken Pox when you get a rash all over your body, Shingles goes to an isolated and commonly used part of her body. Usually it is on your back, but the unfortunate teacher had it on the left eye. “It was very painful,” she comments. “I couldn’t put on my glasses because it had spread on to my nose and the pressure was too much for it to handle. Good thing it’s uncontagious!”
My friend Nick’s mom had it too, when she was in college. She had it on her back. It seems that is may be passed down, because Nick’s grandma had it on the same spot.
If you’ve had Chicken Pox, watch out for the Shingles!