Shingles and Life

Dear all:

I have really thought about sharing this one...so here you go.  

I have been off all week on sick leave.  In my ten years of teaching, the only thing that has kept me away from work for more than two days consecutively is the birth of my children and a broken back.  After only three months of teaching in Qatar, I have been off work all week with Shingles.  Shingles is caused by the varicella zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. After a person recovers from chickenpox, the virus stays in the body in a dormant (inactive) state. For reasons that are not fully known, the virus can reactivate years later, causing shingles. I am not a medical doctor, but I do teach science and I know how to make inferences quite well.  I can attest that the virus is stimulated by a) poor environmental conditions or b) stress.  I have both of those things here in abundance.  

I first thought that I had pimples breaking out on my forehead and then I thought that I was allergic to walnuts.  The pain became so great and the "pimples" were spreading to my left eye brow, then my left eye lid, my left lymph nodes under my ear and then the back of my head.  

I checked myself in to the Doctor's office.  Here in Qatar, they have hospitals and clinics all over the place.  I went to a clinic, paid 50QR, grabbed a seat and thankfully ended up with Dr. Zahid, a fantastic GP from the UK.  He knew what was wrong with me right away and actually referred me to the eye specialist in case my cornea was involved, and it wasn't thank goodness.  We ended up having a long chat about why the two of us are in Qatar.  Interesting that he and I had many parallel things to share.  He put me on several medications including two pills five times a day, a topical cream twice a day and eye drops three times a day.

This whole situation has caused me to re-evaluate things.  Why am I here?  How hard should I work?  What is most important?  There is more that I would like to share obviously...but that will have to happen in some other forum at some other time.

I am recovering.  I have another Doctor's appointment today.  Hopefully everything checks out and I can move forward looking through an entirely new window on life here in Qatar.

Ed