Stress City

Welcome to Stress City! Mayor, me!

I'm stressed to the max - work is crazy (big conference in a few weeks), too many meetings of our HOA Board (I volunteered why?) and family stuff is a roller coaster (grandfather with Alzheimer's at the tip of that iceberg).

That means I work late, run home, scarf dinner and either head to a meeting or log back on the computer to do more work. I can't relax and I'm being a grouch to the one person who's been the nicest to me. Rob deserves a big shout out for keeping me around. :)

So, besides sleepless nights and a constant headache, what else has this nutso stress benefited me with? Shingles.

Yes, that's right. I have shingles. I thought only old people got shingles.

I noticed the breakout Monday morning while I was showering, and figured that I'd been repeatedly bitten by some creepy-crawly during our last lake weekend. But, it didn't itch and continued to get redder and more uncomfortable.

So yesterday, I went to the doctor to have it checked out, and I nearly fell off the little table when she pronounced that it was shingles. "Get out!" is what I'm pretty sure I hollered. You may know that it's the same virus that causes chicken pox, and it remains dormant in the body forever. Guess what's a main trigger? Severe emotional stress. Go figure.

I headed to Target after work with my prescription, only for the pharmacist to tell me my insurance won't cover it. Whatever. So, $250 later I left the pharmacy and have since followed up with my doc to have her convince the insurance company that I need this instead of the generic. I don't know how the uninsured do it. And, this is an issue I'll be looking in to as I'm researching our two options in November.

I need the weekend. I need to sleep and stay off of the computer and be nice to my husband. I'm ready... and only two hours until it begins.