The “C” Word – Day 240 New complications

A few days ago George had a headache.  He woke in the morning and I noticed that his face looked sort of splotchy.  He also complained that his cheek hurt.  He stayed home from work yesterday because he just felt bad.

When I woke up this morning I noticed that his CPAP unit was off – he had taken it off because it was irritating his cheek.  He was concerned that he might have a sinus infection, ear infection or something with his teeth.  I told him he should call a doctor. 

By mid-morning I spoke with him again and he was still concerned.  I had to remind him that, since he has no spleen, he really needs to be proactive in his health care and make the phone call.  I figured it would be easier to get in to see his doctor than his dentist.  So he called and got an appointment.

I got a call from him after his appointment – the diagnosis is shingles.  He was so upset with that.  To top that off, the nurse said that because there was a lesion on his nose, that indicated that there could also be shingles on his optic nerve and he needed to see an ophthalmologist right away (tomorrow) to get drops to take care of that.  If he doesn’t do that he could lose some vision. 

Geesh, this is so frustrating.  Sometimes I feel like we cannot catch a break.  We have gone over two months “tethered” to the house because there is no evening caregiver for mom.  And next week a caregiver starts, but George could be down and out with the shingles.  It is in the early stages and it may take weeks to peak – but without a spleen to help fight off infection, this could be a very different bout than his previous one (more than 20 years ago). 

One step forward, one step back…. This is so hard on George.  He actually filled the prescription for pain meds (even though we have some on hand from surgery), because he remembers how painful shingles can be.  He doesn’t like to take pain meds, but he is preparing for the worst.