Potty training gave me shingles

Let's talk about potty training and stress! Oh my gosh y'all, I was a nervous wreck. Juniper is almost 3 and I just WANTED this for her. I was dreading the arguing and the battles and the pee on my couch. She's a strong willed girl with a huge opinion of her own on how she wants things done... I just knew it was going to be awful. None of those things ever happened. Juniper was super motivated with Halloween candy and was totally trained in 3 days, never had an accident,and on a pretty decent sugar high.

Day 3 I had a killer headache and neck/upper body pain. I thought I was coming down with the flu or slept wrong or extreme pms - I couldn't tell - but I was miserable. The next day I thought I had 3 bug bites on my side below my bra - super random!? Then a rash developed so I assumed I was allergic to the bug bites... except it felt like I was on fire. The next day the 3 "bites" were tripled to a cluster of 10 and it hurt for my clothes to touch or anything. It dawned on me it had to be shingles.

I went to urgent care on Saturday where they told me it was an allergic reaction and to use hydrocortisone. I was SO UPSET. I've had allergic reactions and I know what they feel like.  It also made me feel crazy that 1. No one was listening to me and 2. That maybe I did make up how bad it hurt?! I called my doctor Monday to get me in asap.

I go in today and another two sets of "bug bites" have started - my doctor saw my side for one second and said "absolutely classically textbook shingles"..... relief that I can finally get better AND that I'm not crazy. Unless you stress so hard over potty training that you give yourself shingles.... maybe a little crazy. But in my defense - Rivi isn't old enough for the chicken pox vaccine and I've been super worried that the longer I go untreated the more likely he is to get it.

Moral of the story - POTTY TRAINING IS STRESSFUL AND SHINGLES REALLY HURT.


Ps  shingles is the chicken pox virus that stays dormant in your body/nerves for the rest of your life if you've had chicken pox before. 1 in 5 will develop shingles if they've had chicken pox although it is most common in older people. It's becoming more prevalent in younger people and they believe it's because of stress - and because of the vaccine.