Spindles' mysterious rash was discovered to be shingles today, and he has been ordered to stay home from school for a week. It is very painful. The way Spindles describes it seems to feel a bit like frostbite!
And in this diagram you can see how shingles cause pain. The once dormant cells (from when you had chicken pox) wake up and reproduce in the nerve cells, causing inflammation in the nerves. Ouchy!
The doctor we went to see said that the shingles are probably an indicator that there is something else wrong with Spindles. We will investigate that but possibly with a different doctor. He was very ancient, and kept us there in silence for quite a while before speaking to us, then when he did attend to us he seemed surprised at first, as if he had forgotten we were there!
He was very surprised that Spindles actually did have Shingles (I told him of my suspicions before he examined Spindles), as it is really an adult illness. Thankfully it is a mild case. And I have a slave for a week! Hehehe.
