I am always a little on edge when I leave home. Always a little fearful as a result of being 'out of pocket'. Especially if the distance from home gets so great that I could not get back in just a few hours. There is some constant anxiety about the situation at home, and concern for health issues that seems to create a constant feeling of dreaded 'might and maybe' occurring. Especially since I am leaving a chronic worry wart with excessive time to dredge up all manner of creative worst-case scenarios.Without a sounding board that will talk him down off that particular ledge/cliff/invented crisis he as created out of thin air..
We are having some of that. I got home yesterday, after four days away, and I found a man who had become miserable... some of which can be attributed to chronic worrying. But mostly legitimate, as things evolved in the course of the day. I had to go to work at 9:00, and should have left at 3:00. But it was 5:00 before I clocked out. So after being away for four days, for all practical purposes: that was day number five.
He told me before I left for work on Sunday morning, that he was in a lot of pain in his mid-section, stomach and abdomen, and had been self-diagnosing as diverticulitis. And taking some antibiotic he just happened to have handy for a cure. Not unlikely for a man who is so non-compliant and completely oblivious to doctor's suggestions about what he should not be putting in his mouth. As well as... how to best describe a man who has not had a productive experience in the bathroom in several days??
Later, after I returned from work inquiring, he reported he had medicated with over the counter pain killers. I reminded him he has some much more powerful drugs available for various aching parts - but again: he is a guy. Who is not prone to take drugs unless the wording on the Rx bottle indicates: Take This Like This. And then assumes that is the 'cure-all' so he can go along blissfully un-compliant with the spoken advice.
And then it got to be bed time, and he said: come in here and look at this.... which I did with trepidation. He had a classic case, textbook illustration variety of Shingles. As soon as I looked, I knew. Naturally, being the person who has had the shingles immunization, I had to ask: 'did you get the shingles shot?' And equally to be expected: he did not.
As they say in the comics: 'later that same day'...'and, meanwhile, back at the pass'...
He said he did not sleep at all last night, due to pain in his mid-section. The really angry looking, fiercely red rash has spread from his sternum to mid-back, just like all the photos you will see when you google up Shingles. He got tired of tossing and turning, not able to even lie on his left side, could not get comfortable, but reports he saw some really good TV while he was awake in the wee hours. I told him he needed to try to get into the doctor's office, even if he had to tell them he would gladly sit and wait as long as necessary. They would not go home and leave him sitting there in the dark, as might happen if he went to the ER and they changed shifts, while he sat on the gurney in the little cubicle. Separated from the adjacent crisis by a curtain.
He made the call to family practice office as soon as they opened and surprisingly got an appt.to see a PA, so we went at10:30 (and waited an hour - but thankful to be seen at all on such short notice.) Plan B would have been to try to get into the dermatologist, which he thought was a great idea, but I nixed. I don't think dermatology practice would have done much for someone with a virus, and internal problems, anything below the surface.
We have painkillers and anti-viral Rx. He took some of the industrial strength acetaminophen (the one with the controlled substance that makes you both drowsy and constipated) and is catching up on lost sleep.
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