Thought you'd get a kick out of this based on recent conversations:


I just came back from my doctor's appointment. Told him the whole
story about being an idiot and installing fiberglass insulation over
my head without wearing any protection.

He looked at my still swollen eye and blisters.

Said, "that's not from insulation .... you have shingles."

Nah, I said. Too coincidental. Explained again that it all started
within hours after I was doing the overhead insulation installation.

He just grinned at me and said "you have shingles and I'll bet my
license on it".

I told him that I had googled up fiberglass allergies and had seen
pictures of blisters that look exactly like what I have.
He was getting a kick out of my self-diagnosis and asked me how I
could tell a shingle blister from one caused by a reaction to
fiberglass.
I was catching on. "So, a blister is a blister?"

I said, "but I thought shingles usually happens on only one side of
your body ... and usually your chest or abdomen".

He told me It's not as common to get it on your face and when it
affects an eye it can be particularly serious without treatment with
possible blindness. It's also very painful because in addition to
the blisters, it can feel like you have a needle stuck in your eye.
(That's exactly how it feels)

He gave me prescriptions for a bunch of medicine to start taking and
then sent me immediately over to a nearby eye clinic.

I was still not 100 percent convinced, knowing that I once had a
severe reaction to fiberglass and fiberglass resins when working at
Boston Whaler.
But as I recall, I didn't get blisters then. My face just swelled up
big time and was probably more a reaction to fresh resin.

So, the eye doc has me in his machine poking around and focusing
strange colored lights in my eye. I was telling him also that I
still thought it could be due to getting fiberglass dust on my face
and in my eye. He said, "does it feel like there's a pin stuck in
your eye?" I said, "exactly".

He said, "That's because you have shingles."

So, I was democratically out-voted by two doctors. I have shingles.

So, now I have steroid pills to take every three hours, steroid drops
to put in my eye 8 times a day and some other pill to take.

Have to go back to both docs in a week.

Terrific.