I see that I last posted on 2 Jan, three weeks ago, a Sunday. On the following Wednesday a few blind pimples appeared, above my left eye in the eyebrow, a couple on my eyelid and a few in my scalp above the hairline. They were painful to touch and were accompanied by shooting neuralgia type pain in the scalp above the eye and left ear. This discomfort was still there on the Thursday and worsening and by this time I feared it might be a case of shingles.
Friday morning the neuralgic pain was more frequent and intense so I thought I'd better get to the doctor, in the knowledge that if treated early shingles are not as bad if they are left to develop fully, in which case they can be very serious particularly in the eye. By now my eyelid was swollen and red and the pain was getting full on. Lib rang her doctor and made an appointment for me, he could see me that morning for which I was grateful.
The Doc agreed it was probably shingles, said I should get onto anti viral medication straightaway, which I did. He told me if the eye blows up on the weekend to go to emergency at the Victor Harbor hospital. It had blown up by Sunday morning so Lib took me early to the hospital. Fortunately it was very quiet there, no other customers so there was little delay. They took swabs and a delightful doctor named Dehlia put me on an antibacterial (?) drip for half an hour or so, said keep on the antiviral tablets (Aciclovor), and prescribed me some eye drops and nose drops and told me to come back if the swelling got into my face below the eye. She also told me to see an optometrist on Monday and go back to the GP Tuesday.
At home Saturday, the previous day, about 11am a message came on my mobile from Ralphie saying he was on his way from Melbourne and would be at our place soon. I didn't notice the time it was sent till I looked later and saw it was written at 6am, although it didn't come through till 11am so I messaged him asking where was he now. He replied twenty minutes away, and sure enough he arrived. Ralphie and I had loosely arranged that if it was possible he and I would go away in his caravan and explore the coast a bit west of Adelaide. We told him about the shingles, obviously I was going nowhere till that settled down.
The pain increased and the swelling did go below the eye by Sunday night, so, doing as Dehlia instructed I had Lib take me back to the hospital, thinking I may be on the drip again and maybe this time stay onite. Dehlia was not there, another doctor told me to go home, stay on the tablets, but make sure I saw an optometrist the next morning. This I did. The optometrist gave me thorough examination, said he didn't think it was shingles, more likely was orbital cellulitis, and I should get to Flinders hospital in Adelaide straightaway as a matter of urgency, minutes can make a difference. Ralphie was with me, and he said he'd come with me and bring the car back to McCracken if I had to stay there for a while. So off we went, the hospital being close to an hour's drive.
I think by the time we got there it was toward midday. There was a security guard at entrance to emergency. He asked heaps of questions and wanted proof I was vacced for Covid, which I didn't have, so he gave me entry as unvacced. Ralphie was parking the car and when he followed me to emergency the guard wouldn't let him in, no visitors allowed due to Covid restrictions. There was somewhat an altercation over this but Ralphie had to go kill time till we knew what was happening. After getting past security I then had to do paperwork at admin desk and answer lots of Covid questions at check in. Then it was on to Triage nurse where the same questions re Covid and date of birth and full name were repeated. I was then asked to take a seat. After a while a nurse in full prep gear came and took my blood pressure, I noticed it was very high, 194/something, which didn't really alarm me as I was very uptight after the optometrist told me minutes can make a difference and it could be very serious, I'd driven there and done all the question answering, this after doctor visit Friday and two trips to the local hospital on the weekend, not to mention what was strong pain even though I'd been dosed up on panadol and ibuprofen for some days. I was extremely uptight I'm sure, but maintaining calm as best I could. Another nurse came and asked me to come outside where she did a Covid test on me, and I resumed my seat in the waiting room. Ralphie came back and had another altercation with security but this time they let him in for two minutes to talk to me. It wasn't really necessary for him to come in as we had our mobiles. I told him to go back to McCracken as I could be here for hours, and Lib and Gordon could come back and get me.
About three hours after arriving there, I thought I'd better ring the optometrist and and see if he could ring the hospital and get me attended to. People who had come in after me had been called in to see a doctor and I was getting anxious. I didn't have his number, I'd given the paperwork to the admin desk, so I had to go back and ask for it, a request disliked by the clerk as she had to find it. I rang him and said I'd got here urgently as he suggested, but no-one here seemed to have any urgency except to question and test me for Covid. A msg had come through on my phone from pathology saying my test was negative. Ten minutes after I rang the optometrist I was called in. He'd rung the registrar.
I'm recalling this more for my record than for my blog friends as it is probably quite boring. I'll cut it short now. I saw two eye doctors in the public section, they were unsure of my condition. I was then sent to the eye clinic in the Flinders private hospital next door. It was about 5pm by now. The doc there was most impressive. While doing examinations he was phoning Victor H hospital and pathology and found that the results of the swabs were positive for shingles. A relief, but still serious enough. He prescribed steroid eye drops and two others, some strong painkillers, and told me to keep on the Aciclivor and come back on the next Thursday. He wanted further tests done on me before I left because my blood pressure was so high and sent me back to the public hospital where they took a urine test and gave me an EEG. I passed, kidneys and heart OK. I'd rung Lib and she and Ralphie were waiting for me in the car park. I had to stop at a 24 hour chemist to fill the prescriptions and we got home about 8pm.
Tuesday and Wednesday we rested up. I saw the GP Tuesday for update, Thursday I went back to Flinders, got good progress report, and Ralphie and I left on the Friday, by which time the swelling had gone down and pain almost gone. We stopped first night at Port Pirie, then onto Streaky Bay for two nights in a lovely new park there right on the water. Left to return home early next morning, that being last Monday, and stayed that night at Chrystal Brook in a lovely little park. It was an invaluable trip for me to learn my way around in preparation for Lib and I to do a trip soon. It was very dry everywhere as you'd expect in January. Ralphie left to go home Wednesday, I went back to Flinders hospital for another eye doc appt. Thursday. Good progress again. Have to go back in four weeks. Now on reduced pill frequency, different med, once a day only instead of 5 times. Still one drop of steroid in eye 4 times daily and another drop twice daily. I feel fine.
Interestingly, the Eyre Peninsula where we were, dry as it was, had a big rain this last couple of days, and even floods at Kimba, the town that has the 8 metre big galah. The tail end of the cyclone in the Kimberleys I believe. It rained here in McCracken today, just lightly, but enough to prevent us watering. I bought two french tarragon plants at the market, and two lemon verbenas at Bunnings. I'd been chasing both these for months so I was happy to find them and plant them with the rain around. Planted a white yarrow too.
The path down to the sea from the Island View caravan park Streaky Bay.
