also, good to know that everybody passed both our Podiatry exams..despite some completely off the tangent, horribly answered questions. lol. i quote my lecturer: "OH MY GODDD you guys!" But at least we all passed.
On a sidenote: How interesting, I now know of someone else who's had shingles! (Bit of a Bio lesson for you: It's caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox, but it has to be re-activated for it to become shingles. Otherwise, the virus remains dormant in your body's nervous system.) I remember getting it when I was young. Both Sta and I - it's contagious. I don't remember anything much from it, except feeling a pain across my tummy which turned into a rash within a couple of days and then into a blistery rash after that. It was pretty disgusting because it sort of became pus-filled. =/
My parents thought it was a rash - and they were right, but my grandparents, they knew better. They took Sta and I to this house, where a Chinese old couple lived. I remember them exchanging a few Chinese words, possibly Foochow, and the word 'snake' kept coming up. And then, without any warning (except for not to look, but there was no way I could look anyway), they stuck this lighted piece of ..something (wood? herb? Sta reckons it was a golden feather o.0) near my ears and my back. And in these 3 spots, everytime they did it, there was a 'Pop!' sound. It hurt really bad, I remember crying after the first one!
Later on they explained that Chinese tradition attributed the rash to some 'snakey' thingey. I don't think it meant there was some sort of snake living in me (impossible, right? o.0), they just believed it had something to do with a snake. So where they burnt me - my ears and my back - those spots were meant to represent snake eyes and the back of its head. And because shingles typically spreads in a ring-like fashion around your body, the Chinese believe that when the rash makes a complete round, the person may die. =/ At the time my rash was already halfway round my body.
It's strange because the rash stopped spreading after that. I don't remember taking any anti-virals. All i had was some cream to dry out the area. It scabbed up and completely healed after a few days..so that's the story of shingles and me.
Funny, isn't it? Chinese tradition vs. modern medicine. Call it old-fashioned and non-scientific and whatever you will, but it works! :P I wonder what Western doctors would have to say about that.
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