Shawn P. B. Robinson

This post is a continuation of a series looking back to my experience in 2017 with Encephalitis. For the previous post, click here.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

By Tuesday, the pain was horrible. I was struggling greatly and having repeated naps. It was hard to keep my eyes open due to the pain, and the exhaustion was intense.

We still didn’t have an answer as to what was going on, but my wife sat down with Dr. Google and spent some time searching. After a short while she looked up at me and said, “Shawn, you have shingles.”

I went over to look at the picture on the screen and, sure enough, it could have been me. The poor guy in the picture had the same kinds of swelling and marks, and it was clear I was suffering from the same issue. As we looked into it, we found out that shingles in the eye is a serious issue. Permanent eye damage and even blindness can happen if it’s left untreated.

We decided once again to head to the hospital, but took the time to head to a larger one in a bigger city twenty minutes away.

I had forgotten what the waiting room was like that night until my wife reminded me about it not too long ago. The room itself was fine, but my own experience in it was concerning.

I was normally a relatively relaxed person, but in that waiting room, I could not sit still. I had to pace back and forth. I felt agitated and as if energy was coursing through my veins, although not in a good way. I don’t think we had to wait all that long, but it was rough.

When we finally got in to see the doctor, he didn’t come alone. There were two of them working together to address the issue. They tested my eye again for Eye Herpes (or “Shingles in the Eye” if you want to sound “normal”… or “smart”) and this time the test came back positive. They gave me some powerful pain medication—the kind that prevents you from legally operating a motor vehicle—and put me on some anti-virals.

It turned out that Shingles (or Herpes) is the same virus as the Chicken Pox Virus. They eventually guessed that the reason it hit me as hard as it did was because I had such a severe case of Chicken Pox when I was a little kid.

The two doctors also set me up for an appointment the next day with an Ophthalmologist. An Ophthalmologist is a super-eye-doctor. They are the ones who operate on eyes and deal with the big issues. They don’t just check your prescription, they do things like remove cataracts and deal with people who have Eye Herpes. On the note of Ophthalmologists, my super-eye-doctor, Dr. Johnson, is perhaps the nicest, kindest, most caring doctor I have ever met in my life. I wish he were somehow an “Everything Doctor” rather than just an Ophthalmologist.

I let my church know I had shingles in the eye, and they immediately jumped into action. I still didn’t think the situation was all that serious, but they informed me that they were taking care of things at the church for the next number of weeks. I could not tell you how long… that’s one of the foggy memories of the time, but I can tell you I thought it was far longer than I needed. I assumed I’d be back up and running in no time.

When I walked into the house after my wife drove me home from the hospital, I wobbled as I walked. The medications were taking effect, and I thought I was on my way to recovery.

What I did not know at the time was that the same virus that showed itself as Shingles had worked its way up my spine and into my brain.

Things were about to get worse.

To be continued…

To follow the next part of this journey, click here.

Shawn

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