Cory is quarantined!

After a week of lingering headaches and 4 suspicious looking clusters of what we thought was a pimple outbreak, Cory was diagnosed with Shingles today...poor guy! For those of you unfamiliar with Shingles, it's caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), which is the exact same virus that causes common chickenpox. Even though he did have chickenpox as a child, he now has the secondary form of the same virus. What happens, is when Cory had the VZV as a child and originally fought it off , some of the virus particles moved from the skin blisters (chickenpox) to his nervous system tissue. The VZV lays dormant there until reactivation occurs...usually brought on by some sort of stress or immunosuppression. Since Cory is not immunosuppressed, we're fairly certain that recent stress was the likely trigger. So, once the VZV is turned back on, it likes to travel down long nerve fibers, which is where it multiplies. This is why people with shingles develop a pretty tell-tale rash and have severe tenderness/pain in the area of the rash because the VZV has invaded nerve tissue.

Cory's rash is along his forehead and his right temple, but he also has developed some right eyelid edema and his conjunctiva is pretty inflamed. So, our PCP saw him today and gave him a script to treat the shingles, but also referred him to an ophthalmologist to verify that there isn't any other sequelae occurring. He'll be on an anti-viral medication for 7 days and is to remain "isolated" until the rash resolves. So this means that we'll pretty much be keeping to ourselves for awhile. I'm not too worried since I've had chickenpox and my last VZV titer was good (the joys of being a healthcare worker)...plus I'm already the Lysol queen!