Kris Shingles

Hi, everyone. :(

Question: What is a very painful and often debilitating condition that is caused by the same virus as chickenpox? After one contracts chicken pox, the virus can lie dormant in sensory (skin) nerves for decades. It reappears when the immune system is weakened by age, disease or unmanaged stress. When events occur that decrease the immune system, such as aging, severe emotional stress, severe illness, or long-term usage of corticosteroids, the immune system cannot suppress the dormant organisms any longer and they become active again, causing infection along the pathway of the nerve.

Painful skin blisters erupt on one side of your face or body. Typically, this occurs along your chest, abdomen, back, or face, but it may also affect your neck, limbs, or lower back. It can be excruciatingly painful, itchy, and tender. After one to two weeks, the blisters heal and form scabs, although the pain continues.

This disease in itself is not a communicable disease. However, exposure to the rash may cause small children to develop chickenpox. Pregnant women, adults who have never had chickenpox, and persons with impaired immune systems should avoid direct contact with anyone suffering from this disease.

Answer: The SHINGLES! And Annie has it!

Yes, in the year of interesting illnesses Annie has had (a few months ago, a weird, violent, but quick episode of stomach flu), I have now found a way to get the shingles (sounds like a rock band, yeah?).

Surprised? Not really! With all of my stress out from the wedding and the early and late hours I'm putting in at work, I'm surprised I haven't collapsed yet, just like rock stars do, when they have "exhaustion".

Fortunately, I caught it early. My mom is a plethora of knowledge when it comes to what is wrong with me. She suspected I might have shingles. I went to urgent care right away, and they were able to treat it. My medication makes me hurl every couple of hours, but that's because I hate medication of all kind, and whenever I take them, I get every side effect that it lists. I now only feel a lot of tenderness around my rib area on the left side of my body, but other than that, no rashes, no break outs in blisters, no scary swollen scabs anywhere (nothing like the horror pictures I found on the web). So, I'm okay, but I'm staying home from work just to make sure I don't spread the wealth to anyone who has a low immune system or is pregnant.

Unfortunately, though, I think this may affect my Christmas. I don't think I'd want to cook for the family, because then I'd cry if everyone chose to stay away from it, worried that it might be laced with the shingles, even though by then, I don't think I'd be contagious. Also, there are people with low immune systems and young kids galore in Anthony's side of the family, so I don't know if it would be wise to offer some big Auntie Annie hugs. I did want to do so much, but I just don't have the energy. I haven't even sent out Christmas cards yet, and I just don't think I will.

Anthony also has been hit by the sick bug. First day of his two-week vacation, he got a really bad cold. It's been a few days, but with sleeping in and taking it easy (and a few Coldbusters from Jamba Juice), he's been feeling much better, although he has a really annoying cough that won't go away. But hopefully his plans of catching up with packing for the condo, Christmas shopping, and honeymoon planning should still be able to take place.

And to top it all off, Bennie has been sick! He's been throwing up since Sunday, and we don't know what's wrong with him. DJ had a party for his friends last weekend, and we think he might have eaten something weird. But he's okay now, but he's a little run down. Poor little guy. Right now he's sharing the computer chair with me (tight fit) and making it impossible for me to use the mouse because he's lying his head on top of the pad.

Oh well, a Merry Christmas to all of us! Other than that, we are in good spirits and hopeful that with the New Year comes better health and smooth planning for the wedding!

xoxo and the shingles,
Annie

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Happy holidays, no wait, MERRY CHRISTMAS..

Hi, everyone. :)

Just wanted to drop in and say hello and see how everyone is doing. As usual, I've been stressed out. I think that with the craziness of the holidays that I get caught up in the frenzy of it all (I'm spending an insane amount of money on presents), and I find that that makes me want to accomplish more for the wedding. But everyone keeps telling me to wait until after the holidays to get anything done. But there just doesn't seem to be enough time. I'm not sure if people understand that the wedding is about 4 months away. Sooooooo much to get done before then.

Christmas will be interesting this year. Anthony and I have always found a way to make time for both families, but for some reason, this year seems a lot more difficult. Maybe because we're making too much of it than it really is? Either way, somehow we'll end up offending someone. I'm a very, very positive thinker.

But here's what's going on with the wedding planning. I ordered my veil and blusher. So cool. I forgot about the veil part of the dress for a while, but just ordering one just made me feel so complete. The blusher is what gives me the tinglies. Just so pretty and frothy looking. The wedding attire is all coming together! I thought I knew what shoes I wanted, but a few weeks ago, I was checking out Christing Aguilera's (I know, but don't judge) wedding pics and I fell in love with her shoes. I'd always seen them in stores, but I always thought that they were like 17 years behind fashion, but actually, they looked so cute. We'll see.

The bridesmaids picked up their dresses. Very cute, very brown. I was happy to see all of the dresses together, although I haven't seen my girls in them yet. I love them all. Now we need to find shoes.

Ooh, ooh, and we finally picked our cake! It's going to be so fabulous. I'm not a cake person, but I just loved designing our cake and going to the tasting and everything. And it'll be different flavors, so we can accommodate all the picky eaters of the bunch.

I can see January being very busy for all of us. I know the bridal shower should be happening around then, and we've got lots of appointments to finalize invites, food (my favorite part), itinerary, music, readings, and other things that can't be put off, at least in my mind.

Seriously, I just can't wait to be married. We've been together for so long, and I keep staring at our empty condo, just itching to move in. But we're doing this the way we'd always planned, and I know that with all the waiting will come its reward. Leana told me a story about her and Oscar (the soon-to-be-ousted newlyweds) that made me feel so excited all over again about starting the Anthony-Annie life together.

Hmm. MZ (love her) passed along the rumored lineup for Coachella. When we were planning our day, we completely forgot about Coachella weekend, which falls on our weekend. Sorry to all the music fans if we're making you choose between us and the Coachella Music Festival. Of course, we can't make it on Saturday, but I'm trying to convince Anthony that we should head on over to good ol' Indio on Sunday. Am I pushing it? But how cool would it be to wake up and know that we've got a sort of honeymoon before our honeymoon? We don't leave for the real thing until May anyway, so IT MAKES SENSE. I'll wear my veil and we'll wear matching shirts that say, "Just married and we're at Coachella." I'll wear my X-tina shoes, too. With shorts. And my hair still did from the night before. YES! Why don't I just wear my wedding dress, too? No, that would be too much. Just the veil, shoes, shorts, and matching shirts. Hahaha. Anybody who knows Anthony knows that he loooooooves to match with me. There was this one time long ago when he picked me up, and we were wearing the same light blue color, and he turned back to his house, and I asked where we were going, and he said, "Back to my house. I need to change." I hope he's over it, because I bought us matching Christmas sweater vests this year. Looks great with light blue shirts.

Merry Christmas to all, if I don't a chance to say it later!

Love, Annie

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