Shingles

Today at the nursing home I'm working at I had to give a bed bath to a woman with shingles, at a point when it's highly contagious (the vesicles, blisters full of pus, are erupting). In case you guys didn't know, Shingles is caused by residual viral tissue or something from ChickenPox that can remain in your body and might remain latent for life, or after decades erupt into a painful rash with or without blisters- namely, shingles. It also can be caught from someone who has it. Although the blisters usually heal within two to four weeks, in some people residual nerve pain continues for months or years, a condition called postherpetic neuralgia. It's pretty nasty, and INCREDIBLY painful from what I can tell. It's symptoms are commonly followed by sensations of burning pain, itching, and hypersensitivity. The pain may be extreme in the affected nerve (the blisters and rash tend to follow a certain nerve on one side of the body). These sensations are often described as stinging, tingling, aching, numbing or throbbing, and can be interspersed with quick stabs of agonizing pain. Lots of quick stabs of agonizing pain.

It was horrible on several accounts. First, because I'm WASHING this ladies agonizing, bursting blisters and she's whimpering and screaming and wailing and it's horrible, horrible, horrible. It's so painful, she can't even wear a gown to bed. That's crazy. Second, her poor roommate is in the room getting frantic and near tears about the whole thing. And third, I've never had chickenpox before, so this highly contagious disease is even worse news for me because I haven't had to fight it off before-- it's supposed to be harder to deal with the older you get. Plus it can last 4-6 WEEKS. So I was supposed to be taking extreme infection control measures. And that really stressed me out. Especially because I'm trying not to let my person or clothes (granted, I had a gown on) touch or be touched by anything, and she's grabbing at me begging me to make it hurt less.

It was pretty crazy. Nursing is fascinating. Fascinating like a siamese twin or a car crash.