Dear Kids,
I thought I’d had my quota of pain and suffering for the year, but now I have shingles! It started with weird red blotches on my leg–that was Tuesday morning. I thought they were strange, and they’d be gone in a day. The next morning the blotches had little blisters on them. By Thursday morning they were spreading, and they hurt. On a hunch I googled “shingles rash,” and there it was, horrible pictures of rashes like mine. I couldn’t believe it! John has been bugging us to get the new shingles shot, and Dad was a good boy and did it. (Actually, it’s two shots. And they’re expensive.) I was just waiting, because I didn’t want to have anything more to do with the medical world for a while. Besides, we’d both had the old shingles shot, and IT was expensive, and IT was supposed to work. Excuses. I called John to see if I should get the shots anyway, and he said no; I should see my doctor immediately. That day! There’s an antiviral drug that controls the rash, and I needed to start it asap. So we saw my doctor that afternoon. (Naturally Dad came along. He’s always fascinated by my medical troubles.) I got the drug–it’s called valtrex, and this is my third day of it. The rash has slowed down, but it still hurts plenty. Besides that, I have aches in my back and my legs. I limp around like an old farmer. I should probably google “shingles” and find out how long it’s supposed to last, but I don’t want to know. I just figure it’ll be a little better every day.
And of course I’m still planning on enjoying conference next weekend. We’ll still have the soup dinner here Saturday night, at 5 pm. I’ll call around and see who’s coming, and what you want to bring. And I’ll find out if you want to do a Sunday dinner between sessions. I’m looking forward to the talks, and to find out if all the rumors about drastic changes are true. There’s a meme floating around, a picture of the first presidency laughing it up. They’re saying, “Then we’ll spread a rumor of a 2 hour block . . . they’ll all watch conference.” Well, we can hope. At least we’ll enjoy conference!
Here’s some good news, for me at least: the Ghirardelli chocolate bars I love are called “Evening Dream” (60%), “Twilight Delight” (72%), and my favorite, “Midnight Reverie” (86%). But now there’s a brand new one, “Moonlight Mystique” (92%). It’s the best of all! One bite of it, and you mostly forget your troubles. Two bites, and you can face anything.
Life is good, in spite of all the challenges. I love you all! Mom