faceache

I learnt a new French word this week - un zona


I have been laid low with an attack of shingles on my face from my scalp to my lips. Very painful and very scary as it was around my useful eye ( the other one being pretty well hopeless). Luckily our local doctor services meant I could get to see a doctor very promptly ( a good deal more quickly than in England) and got the appropriate antiviral medicine in time for it to have an effect. All of this week I have looked like someone who has had a very bad botox experience and then an acid attack.
 
The swelling has gone down a lot now so with a serious amount of make up I can face the world albeit with a droopy eye and lopsided smile. 

 I have even even managed the odd  hour of gardening and uncovered my hellebores which had started flowering under a blanket of old leaves and winter debris.

 
 

Although on the mend I am still very tired all the time and with a bad headache so actvitiy doesn't last long. Our hammock normally lives in the shade for reading on hot sunny afternoons - we have just moved it for "out of season " use so I can rest and read in the lovely spring sunshine rather than curled up ( poorly on chairs) in front of a fire indoors.


 I have been fascinated at the number of people (even those I would normally think quite rational) whose first reaction is to insist I should find someone with a "secret" to " lift the burn". No less than three of the ladies at patchwork claimed the power over burns and un zona. I suspect it is a countryside thing - there are a lot of old fashioned superstitions, some religious , some not still current. Anyway I have been well administered unto although I think perhaps the prompt antiviral treatment may have had the most significant effect ( I'll just keep quiet about that )