This was not a good week for my physical health. I’d had a rash on my chest by my underarm for about a week which I had thought was just a rash. It started hurting last Sunday night which made me think it was not just a rash. When I told my GF about it the next day she said it was probably shingles. My GF is a nurse and got her friend who is a nurse practitioner to look at it and she agreed that it was shingles. Although the shingles was annoying and caused me to lose some sleep I could deal with it and work through it.
Tuesday the plan was to get my shingles prescription after I got off work. After lunch Tuesday I started to feel unwell. I ended up leaving work about an hour early and by the time I got home I was sick as a dog. I had a fever, nausea, chills, aches, and fatigue. Looking at shingles symptoms I saw that it could cause flu-like symptoms so I figured that was what I was experiencing. This was worse than any flu than I’d had for many years though.
I didn’t get much sleep that night and in the morning I felt even worse. I decided I needed to tell my GF another symptom I was experiencing. It really hurt when I peed. This is not something you want to tell your GF. 🙂 Since I knew it couldn’t be an STD we figured it must be a urinary tract infection and I started taking an antibiotic for this infection.
Having shingles and a UTI seems bad enough but things were actually worse. After taking the antibiotic Wednesday and Thursday I felt only a little better on Friday. My GF decided I should go to her office so she could run a urinalysis which confirmed I had an infection and that it looked more serious than just a UTI. Her doctor sent me to get some blood work done which confirmed I had prostatitis. I’d never heard of it before, but it is a bacterial infection of the prostate which can be pretty serious. With the new diagnosis we switched to a different antibiotic and it seems to be working.
My theory is that these illnesses all started with my oral surgery a couple of weeks prior. The dentist prescribed me a steroid to keep the inflammation down. One side effect of the steroid is that it can weaken your immune system. Apparently, it really weakened mine. When I have my dental implants done later this year I will be sure to let them know I do not want to take a steroid.
Although I was off work three days I didn’t get any blogging or much of anything else done. I felt so bad I all I wanted to do was sleep or sit on the couch and watch TV. Now that I’m feeling almost normal again I should have a better week this week.
Gosh that sounds horrible. I hope you recover 100% and never have prostatitis again – never even heard of such a thing.
I’d never heard of it before either. I wish I still hadn’t. 🙂 On the positive side I feel much better this week and it is a good reminder that you can’t take your health for granted.
I had the same issue raise its ugly head while having two crowns put in during dental surgery. My pharmacist warned that the meds prescribed would leave your body open to infections, especially urinary problems. He said that eating yogurt regularly while on the meds would help counterract problems.
I did — and it actually stopped some infections (which were starting) in their tracks.
You might try that next time. One or two cups of yogurt a day should help.
I had probiotic yogurt earlier to help counteract the antibiotics attacking the good bacteria in my stomach. I stopped eating it once I finished my antibiotics, but maybe I should have continued eating it for a couple more weeks.
You were “too young” to get shingles, no?
In retrospect, and I don’t say this to be flippant, would you endorse paying out of pocket $200+ (Costco) for the vaccine, where your doctor and/or local clinic or insurance won’t cover it?
They say you’re at greater risk if you’re 50 and older and suggest the vaccine for those over 60. I’m 47 so I’m a bit young to get shingles. The shingles vaccine only last a few years so I probably wouldn’t pay for it at my age.