Ease up, rest, relax, revive

Cold and sore

It probably should be the least of my worries, the irritating but least atrocious human herpes virus flare-up, the cold sore which folklore suggests comes from a feeling of emotional stress and a wearing down in the body. With no mind of looking for the science of this thing, it’s been a strange few weeks of pandemic loneliness culminating with the tragedy of the sudden passing away of my stepmother on Wednesday. [Humanherpes virus]

Looking through the human herpes viruses presents a checklist of events that should hardly be a topic of conversation except at the point of diagnosis in the readiness for treatment. Yet, cold sore many checks, chickenpox check, shingles check, kaposi’s sarcoma check and we are still here.

Tired of the cancer

Kaposi’s sarcoma was the worst experience, presenting as a fungating tumour and cancerous withering of flesh on the soles of my feet, more prominently on the left foot. It took 5 months of chemotherapy to blow that completely away.

Shingles was a strange experience, I had a complete rundown of strength in the week that I had guests in the Netherlands and the day before, I progressive felt strength drain out of me when we visited the Kinderdijk windmills, that by the evening I was barely standing and I was able to make dinner for us.

Those blistering poxes

When they left the next morning, I went to bed, and by noon, from the left arm over my shoulder blade and crossing over my back and unusually over my vertebral column to the right shoulder blade, the blisters appeared. Then travelled to Berlin for 4 nights and returned needing an airport escort in Berlin and personnel to ship me into a cab in Amsterdam. Bathed in camomile lotion, it was all gone in two weeks and thankfully without post-herpetic neuralgia.

Chickenpox was an affliction of childhood, I hardly remember, I know I was covered in spots and I was soon fine. We live with this thing sitting somewhere completely out of view until triggered by some event, condition, or even state of mind. I guess in the main, this is one of those things that we as humans have evolved to contain as much as possible. Keeping healthy in spirit, soul, and body is probably the best guard against it manifesting in one of its ghoulish costumes.