The Lost Romance of Shingles

Those who have been privileged enough to see me in person over the past few months would undoubtedly have noticed a certain rosy shine about my eyes. This mystery ailment has come and gone over the weeks with all attempted cures having little or no effect.

This weekend past it flared up into a different version of itself involving burning sensations and small blistering. A quick Internet self diagnosis led me to finding a match with shingles. One was immediately transported to visions of the worst symptoms - the tragedy of blindness and loss of my beloved reading! Salsa Girl helpfully suggested the need for a seeing eye cat in the form of The Tiger. One can easily imagine the resulting scenario "Are we at the bus yet?", "Meow!", "What, are we at your food bowl again?!"

Alas, after a visit to the doctor this morning, I find that the official diagnosis of my condition is merely Nasty Rash. I am disappointed that the Doctor couldn't even Latinise it for me - Nastius Rashius has a nice ring about it don't you think?
Apparently the thing that the Internet neglected to make clear was that Shingles is bilateral, meaning that it is only ever on one side of the body and hence having both eyes covered ruled it out of contention immediately. Here's a Caution for you: the Internet can sometimes contain incorrect or incomplete information.

In any case I now have a tube of face steroids to apply and so far it seems to be soothing the rash. I am however concerned about the steroid side effects of my face becoming over muscled and aggressive.
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