BLOGmas Day 3: Shingle Bells, Shingle Bells, Shinglesss Go Away

Hello guys, welcome to BLOGmas Day 3! It's been raining the whole day but... I am so excited to share today's accomplishment with you all so without further ado, I just want to say that I AM DONE TAKING MY ANTIBIOTICS!

Yup, you read that right. That small win for today is a huge deal for me. Since I started taking my antibiotics, it seems like 7 days have been such a long time. I take these medicines for my Shingles. So how on Earth did I get this skin rash? Well, read up.

On Thursday last last week (November 21, 2019), I woke up with rashes on my left leg. At first, I thought it was just allergies since my skin is overly sensitive and seeing rashes on my body is not a surprise for me anymore. Then, as the weekend passed by, the rashes in my left leg got some water inside it and my whole left leg hurts so bad. On the night of November 25, I can't sleep anymore because of too much pain. I woke up the next day crying because I can't bear the pain anymore and the skin rash looked so bad. 

My mom immediately took me to the hospital and went to see a dermatologist/skin specialist. Apparently, my skin rash is not a rash but a viral infection. I caught the Herpes Zoster which is commonly known as Shingles. It was caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. According to the doctor, I had chickenpox before, which is weird because I never had a history of chickenpox. Well, most likely, my chickenpox was restrained and didn't manifest during the time that I had it since throughout the years, I had a lot of bad fever that I can't keep up anymore so probably, I actually had the virus in one of those moments and no one even knew, not even myself. So since the chickenpox has been restrained, it went back and evolved to Shingles. 

My Shingles are not caused by me being unhygienic or whatever okay. Just to clear things up on my previous blog (which you can read here), it was not a skin condition but a viral infection which is the reason why it is quite contagious. It was caused by too much stress and overwork making my immune system go down and it wasn't able to fight the virus that took over my body. 

Luckily, the Shingles did not appear on my face because the doctor told us that it could appear in any part of my body and usually it is just on one side. Sadly, my immune system is down which I think always happens nowadays since I am really a sensitive person overall when it comes to my physical health. 

After the doctor's check-up, she asked me to buy the Avene Cicalfate which is a restorative skin cream made that can be used for cuts, scrapes, scratches, burns, cracked skin, stitches, diaper rash and, post-treatment procedures. After my hospital trip, I even went to Van Gogh Alive (which you will see on my next VLOG) then bought my antibiotics and pain killers in the drug store. 

Well, things went spiraling down from that day. Apparently, my antibiotics which are called Valtrex is priced at Php 187 each. Holy cow. I needed to but 42 tablets of that so I can fully recover. I never knew that being stressed could be this expensive. Apart from the antibiotics, I had to buy a pain killer (which helped me a lot btw) for Php 39 each and I got it in generic brand!!! My antibiotics don't have a generic counterpart and according to Google... and the pharmacist at the drug store, there's no other brand of the medicine that I need. I PAID FOR PHP 8,400++ IN ONE DAY. Add the Avene Cicalfate cream to that which was priced at Php 1,150 and I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I'M SAYING THIS BUT FOR JUST ONE DAY, I SPENT PHP 9,500++ ON MEDICINES ALONE. I never spend that much on anything in one day. I was crying inside my heart and mind at the drug store as the cashier swipes my credit card. I mean, that is just absurd. I felt my tears at the corner of my eyes during that time. I was supposed to use my extra money to buy myself a pair of sneakers but I have to say goodbye to my sneakers (which is waaaaaayyy cheaper than those medicines) in order for me to be well and vanish these Shingles away.

So fast forward to today, I can finally stop thinking that I'm drinking a Php 1000 worth of tablets per day. Also, I am just happy that I am done with my meds because taking 3,000mg of antibiotics per day is no joke. Every after a meal, I needed to take 2 tablets of 500mg so that's 1,000mg per intake plus I have to take my pain killers twice a day which is 75mg. That's too many numbers but overall I took 21,000mg of antibiotics for the whole 7 days and my body is screaming to have an intense DETOX once my doctor tells me that I am okay now. 

My antibiotics have really bad side effects too. Every single time that I take my meds this past week, I get dizzy and my head hurts so bad. I can sleep easily literally anywhere I go and it made me feel so weak and helpless. I've been trying to fight the side effects every time I take my antibiotics but it's just a hard week so I surrendered. 

Today, after finishing my antibiotics and clocked out of work, I just fixed my DIY side table which I built from scratch, washed my new thrifted jacket, and well, served my mom's dog so she won't have any complaints or qualms while staying with me. 

There's a typhoon in the country and it's been raining all day. Although I love the rainy day and how it makes me cozy, I still hope that everyone is safe and no casualties will be reported for those that are directly hit by the typhoon. Okay, I just learned that the Typhoon's name is Tisoy so I hope that everyone is safe from him. I don't have a TV here in my apartment and though I have internet here, I usually spend my time working and not bother on checking the news. 

So far, that's my BLOGmas day 3. Right after publishing this blog, I might edit a vlog that will be up tomorrow or this weekend so stay tuned for that too.

Thank you for reaching this part of the blog. See you again tomorrow!

Love,

KAT 💛