It was many years that I last saw the house where I lived until I was twelve. In my memory, it was a big house with a big backyard. I was married with children when I saw my house next. Oh my! How very tiny!
The exterior of the house wasn't much different from when we moved. Most changes were in the landscape. The lilac bush that stood near the street on the left side of the yard was gone.
The tree near the front of the house to the left of the walkway was gone as well. I wasn't surprised as it was struck by lightning about a month before we moved. A portion of the tree was split from the tree so I expect that the tree didn't survive the next winter.
The tree on the right side of the walkway was still there. My father and I visited his uncle's farm one day and came home with a sapling. It was the first tree in our yard. When we moved, the trunk of that tree wasn't much more than 5 inches in diameter. How it had grown!
The next time that I saw the house was 10 years later. The exterior was quite different. The fake stone façade was removed and new windows installed. The poor little house looked quite plain.
When my sister and I visited the house in 1991, we did not see if the residents were at home. When we visited the house in 2001, she knocked on the door. The son of the current owner was home and invited us in to see the house.
We learned that his parents bought the house from our parents. They had not enlarged it or appreciably remodeled it other than adding a deck behind the house. The huge old furnace in the basement had been replaced by a much smaller, modern one. I remember that it seemed to take up a large portion of the basement on one side of the staircase. As my sister and I walked through the house, we couldn't image how 8 people fit in that house.
About a year ago, I saw the house again. I don't know if the people who owned it in 2001 were the current owners, but whoever owned the house had made a number of improvements to the exterior and the landscaping. I am really sorry that the fake stone façade was removed. But the red door and the shutters on the windows really help make the little cute again.
I am hoping that the interior was updated too.
Most of the houses on our side of the street looked like this house. We called them Monopoly houses because they were shaped just like the green houses in a Monopoly game. They were built after World War II to support the baby boom. When my parents bought this house, it had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room, a kitchen, a basement and an attic.
The front door opens to the living room, which is on the right of the photo. The window on the left side of the door is in the master bedroom. The second bedroom is behind it. Behind the living room is a staircase to the attic. The kitchen is on the other side of staircase. Below this staircase is one to the basement and is accessed from the kitchen. The bathroom is located between the rear bedroom and the kitchen.
As our family grew in size, my father finished half of the basement into a recreation room, sometimes called a rumpus room. One year, my grandfather came from California to help my dad turn the attic into another bedroom with storage space.
Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox, varicella-zoster virus. After the symptoms of chickenpox have disappeared, the virus remains in a dormant state in the nerve tissues. When the immune system of a person who had chickenpox is compromised, then there is a potential of an outbreak of shingles. I have not found a definitive explanation of what a compromised immune system is. Stress appears to be a factor but lots of people have stress yet not everyone has an outbreak of shingles. Earlier this week, I was diagnosed with shingles. My doctor asked me if I was having a lot of stress. Considering that my daughter had just received her MD and in a week my son will be hooded for his PhD, I didn't see that stress was a factor in my case. I was given the shingles vaccine about 5 years ago. As friends and family learn that I have shingles, I heard many comments. The most common is "I thought the vaccine was supposed to prevent shingles." Well, I am testimony that it does not. In fact having shingles does not prevent you from another outbreak. So what does the vaccine do?
Can help prevent an outbreak of shingles if you have had chickenpox.
Can help prevent a recurrence of shingles if you have had a previous outbreak of it.
Shorten the duration of the outbreak.
Affect the degree of pain during an outbreak.
Affect the incident of post-outbreak pain.
The articles that I read concerning shingles use the phrase "can prevent" not "will prevent." Apparently, the vaccine reduces the risk of developing shingles by 50%. That might not seem like a lot, but shingles is very painful and can pose some serious long term issues. Before the shingles vaccine was introduced, I knew a few friends and relatives who had shingles. They all talked about the excruciating pain and how long it took to be pain free. The duration of pain and the severity of it seem to be what the vaccine helps. My doctor told me that it was most beneficial in preventing the pain that lasted after the blisters and scabs disappeared. The vaccine is primarily available to people 50 or older because the incidence of shingles is much higher as you age. Apparently the number of people who had a bout of shingles in which the pain lasted months or even years increased markedly in the older population. This pain is called postherpetic neuralgia; meaning pain due to nerve damage from the herpes virus. I couldn't tell from the articles I read what percentage of people who have an outbreak of shingles suffered postherpetic neuralgia. However, according to WebMD, over 50% of the cases of postherpetic neuralgia occur in people over 60.
Last weekend, I was having some strange pain in one spot on my right side but could find no evidence of a bruise, irritation, or sore. The next day, the pain near my armpit was worse and an area of pain appeared near my shoulder blade. When the pain turned from an ache to a tingling sensation, I suspected shingles.
I made an appointment with my doctor. A rash was just beginning to appear when she examined me. That turns out to be significant because the anti-viral drug is more effective if started within 72 hours of the appearance of the rash.
Although I am not a "happy camper," the pain and discomfort I am feeling is not unbearable. This is largely due to the fact I did have the shingles vaccine in combination with the medications that were prescribed for me.
For more information regarding shingles, chickenpox, the vaccine and treatment for shingles, visit the CDC and WebMD web sites. Both sites have information regarding who should not receive the vaccine.
