The adventure doesn't stop!

I swear, it is always an adventure with me. I've dubbed myself the "luckiest person in the world" (sarcasm).


Things were getting a little too complacent that my body decided to spice things up a bit.


About three days ago I noticed a pain on my side, almost like a bruise. Because I am a klutz, I thought it was a result of me running into something and not realizing it. The pain slowly get worse over the course of a day. The following day the area is red and it's a pulsating, sharp pain. It's manageable when I lay down, so I spend the day in bed sleeping (literally all day). The next day I see little bumps and welts. There have been ants in the room lately, so my mother assumes that they are fire ants and I have been bitten. I had no reason not to believe her (along with the help of Google images). The pain associated with these little suckers started to become unbearable, like someone taking a spiked club and beating me with it.


Turns out I have chicken pox's retarded cousin: SHINGLES!


The doctor was like "yeah, for being a young girl you have an old body. shingles is common in folks over 50." AWESOME.


I hate going to the ER, especially since I've been there so often in the last two months. I feel like if I get a pinch I run there...but I'm so scared whatever I have is more serious than I realize (which in most cases it has been--thank you Lupus). It's almost embarrassing the amount of times I've been to the ER, but I'm glad I went tonight. I went in thinking, "it's fire ant bites, just give me pain killers and a steroid topical ointment and send me on my way." Boy, was I wrong.


So, I can't go back to my apartment like I planned because I can't be around people who haven't had chicken pox before (I'm contagious). Some of my roommates have never had the pox. And if you're preggers, watch out! I'm stuck in my mom's hotel room with her for another week or so, until the welts/bumps "crust over" (gross). I swear I need to be in a damn bubble. Being on so many immuno-suppresants makes me susceptible to viruses. I can't really be around people.


What makes this story EVEN better is that the doctors prescribed me Valtrex (a genital herpes medication--WHICH I DO NOT HAVE) that is TERRIBLE for people with kidney disease. They didn't even bother ASK for my list of medications or really listen to me when I was talking about my medical history. I had to read through my discharge papers and see the cautionary notice that read: "please notify physician if you have HIV/AIDS, kidney disease (or if you are on dialysis), of if you have had a kidney or bone marrow transplant. Valtrex can be harmful to the kidneys..." I was like whoa. I go back and talk to the doctor and he actually says to my face, "But your kidneys are doing fine, no?" I wanted to slap him. He pulls up my most recent labs and sees that my kidneys are not in working order, so he changes my prescription. Thank Jahbeebee that I read my discharge papers from start to finish because I would have added one more complication to the list of my already complicated condition.


I'm not trying to down talk Boston Medical because I think it is a fantastic hospital and it is the primary reason that I am still here in Boston, but it scares me to think that they would quickly rush me in and out and not thoroughly attend to me. Most of the people who come through BMC are ethnic and English is their second language. I would hate for them to go home without FULL understanding of their condition and how to properly care for themselves. It was definitely a wake up call to remind me that doctors are human too. We all need to be very aware of what's going on and constantly stay on top of them.


They can make mistakes too.