Post herpetic neuralgia

Went to see the doctor this morning and she says that while my shingles infection has ended, I have post herpetic neuralgia.  I still have pain where the rash was and on my back it’s very itchy which is all normal and should go away in a few months ugh!  Looking online, if I’m really unlucky this could last the rest of my life!  She prescribed me a cream for itch however it’s harsh and she said not to use it for more than 2 weeks and that she could prescribe me a nerve pain killer or narcotic to help with the pain which I passed on.  I don’t particularly like taking pills and will just deal with it…

Sigh what a nightmare this has been but at least I have a great support group at home and at work…  I think what I’m most annoyed at is the fact that this happened in the summer, I don’t feel so bad about staying home all the time in the winter but when the warm weather is here I prefer to be out and about. 🙁

Old is new?

The Canada day long weekend has been going well, I’m still recovering from shingles, the rash has gotten much smaller but the pain has remained and sometimes there’s a sharp stabbing pain from the right side of my toros which is pretty annoying.  Hopefully when the disease subsides completely I’ll be back to normal.  Friday & Saturday Brandon had some friends over, end of the school year and he did well academically so it was hard to say no.

Yesterday we didn’t do much, went out for lunch then relaxed at home.  Since I’m not sleeping well, I’ve been taking naps but not being a nap person, I sleep too long and am groggy afterwards. 🙁  Today Maggie went to play badminton and we all met up to have some dim sum which was great.  I guess I’m the biggest reason we didn’t do anything, driving is difficult due to the abrupt bumps in the road, when I hit one there’s quite a bit of pain so I’m trying not to go anywhere really.

In other news, I picked up a Classic Army MP5A3 for Brandon.

He’s turning 13 in August and I wouldn’t mind playing airsoft with him, he seems interested so why not.  There’s a local field in Clarington that’s around a 30 minute drive and they have newbie days, when I’m fully recovered we’ll give that place a shot and see how it goes.  The MP5 was one of my first guns (albeit I had a TM) and I really love that platform so it’s quite nice to hold one again. We’ll see what the future brings but I stopped playing because of my fatherhood duties, perhaps now that he’s older I can get back into the hobby. 🙂

A quick walk

So shingles has been kicking my ass and this morning I decided I wanted to go for a walk in the park and took Brandon along with me.  The walk itself wasn’t too bad but the bumps on the road as I was driving was quite uncomfortable…

I still love my 3 year old Canon EOS R5, in the first two photos the foreground is quite busy but the camera could still snap onto the subject perfectly!  I tell you animal eye AF is like cheating…  Nothing spectacular but it was great to get out and shoot something, I haven’t done enough of that in the last little while and quite enjoyed this.

As for my issue, the rash is no longer growing but it’s pretty deep red and it feels like I got beat up.  According to the NIH website I’m at #2, and this is definitely going to last more than two weeks… 🙁

ugh shingles?!?

Saturday night on a night vision walk with Maggie I noticed a small but sharp pain on the side of my torso, feels like when you pull a muscle or sleep wrong.  Anyway I figure it was nothing but the next morning it was there and by Monday the pain started to spread to my back and I noticed a small pink spot at the spot where the pain started.  I wanted to go to the doctor yesterday but there were many meetings during the day and Brandon’s BJJ class so I went this morning to see the doctor and after listening to the symptoms and looking at my torso she said I had shingles.

Apparently if you have the chicken pox as a child the virus stays in your body but lays dormant and can flare up at any moment.  It’s not dangerous just painful and it is contagious if there’s skin to skin contact so it’s back to hand washing and distancing for the Sun family.

At the Shoppers Drug Mart while I was waiting for the prescription to be filled, the digital kiosk next to me was talking about the Shingrix vaccine which gave me a bit of a chuckle.  I mentioned to the pharmacist that I thought shingles was an old person thing, he then asked me how old I was so I replied 43 and he just nodded so I guess that means I’m old lol.  I was given a week’s worth of valacyclovir in 500MG tablets which I’m suppose to take 2 tablets 3 times a day so hopefully by this time next week I’ll be back to tip top shape.

Just annoying and painful, oh well gives me an excuse to get out of my chores right? 😉

 

Happy father’s day!

Or at least happy belated father’s day to all the dads out there.  I reflect often on my life and one area I hit it out of the park with is marrying Maggie, she gave me our wonderful boy Brandon.  Being a dad is the best thing ever and I enjoy every moment of it.

Brandon is 12 now and knows that it’s these types of gifts that really do it for me and I treasure all of the cards and drawings he has done for me over the years.  Brandon is the best son a father can ask for and I’m so damn lucky to have him be my boy.

Thank you

I received this email yesterday and it was such a nice touch.

It’s been a while since I talked about the hobby airsoft and I had some great times showing new players what I’ve learnt over the years.  With airsoft getting a reprieve from the government (it was slated to be banned), I’m glad people will still be able to enjoy the hobby.  In fact I’ve been thinking about getting back into it myself, Brandon is old enough to play now and some of his friends have been talking about it, what fun that would be to experience with my boy.

Needless to say the sender made my day and thank you, I’m happy I made an impact and glad that you can share this wonderful hobby with your boy too!

Macro time!

Today I went to Edward Gardens with some of the guys to take pictures of the flowers & bugs; got rained on the whole time we were there but it was worth it!  Perhaps it’s because it’s still early June but not a lot of flowers were blooming yet and some of the flower beds were just barren.  Still we got lucky as some of the bugs were still out and made the day fun.

We wrapped up just after 12pm and just our luck as we were starting to leave, the sun comes out grr…  Ahh well we still had a good time and hit up Jack Astors for lunch.

Good day all in all and I have to get out to shoot more.

Weeds can be pretty

I haven’t done much photography in the last little while but for fun I busted out the 100mm RF macro lens, took some pictures of the flowering weeds and they’re pretty in their own way.

The last one is not a weed, it’s a plant from the previous owners and I’m not sure what it is but it’s nice.  Over the weekend I also installed some solar patio lights in the backyard and thought they turned out well.

Gives the backyard some nice character, need more lighting back there in case we do night activities but yeah enjoying our new home and all it has to offer. 🙂

Relaxing weekend

With the pool opened last week Brandon and I decided to use it both on Saturday & Sunday!  Last night we also used the BBQ for the first time since moving and mmm I had a meat coma afterwards lol.

Our new house has so many more amenities than our old place and we’re definitely enjoying it.  I’m going to move the BBQ soon sit on the deck and I just bought replacement LED lights for the backyard, the old ones that came with the house no longer work and I love how it spices up the backyard when it gets darker but will install that tomorrow and show you the results then. 🙂

Surprise!

On Friday I went to the cottage to check a few things and was surprised to see a burst pipe in the bathroom…  Our “cottage” in Belleville is an actual house fully winterized so I don’t think it was due to the cold but none still a problem and I suspect the pipe has been leaking water for at least a month.  We have a local contractor taking a look and overall the damage is not super bad, but of course still requires to a bit of work.  I’m pretty upset at myself right now, I wanted to go by earlier but was lazy and didn’t bother and now yeah I’m kicking myself about it.

We haven’t used it as much as I thought we would, I guess having a pool in our new house makes the appeal of a cottage less so Maggie and I have been talking about selling it.  Good thing the market has gone back up, if I can break even I’ll be happy but who knows maybe we can make some money on it too.