Shingles...and not the ones that belong on the roof of a house...

So, after going to Perth with cold/flu like symptoms, I came home and had noticed a bump on the left region of my cranium. It seemed as if it had been caused by bumping my head. It was painful to touch and I just thought that it would go away on its own. Well, it did regress, but it regressed into a group of small red bumps that were VERY sensitive to the touch. The lymph nodes along the entire left side of my body were all enlarged and I was having horrible thoughts going through my head, "I'm too young for lymphoma! I haven't even finished school yet!". I'll have to admit, with the swollen lymph nodes, I was a bit concerned. So I scheduled an appointment with the General Practitioner (GP) near the flat. I waited an hour and when I was finally called in, I told the doctor all of my symptoms and that I was worried it was an ear infection because behind my ear was so painful. She said that it was probably a virus and that I would have to let it run it's course. She told me that in 2 minutes of seeing me. Waiting an hour for the doctor to briefly tell you that you should just go home and wait it out, grrrr. So the next morning, I woke up with intense pain on my face and head. The large bump on my head had completely regressed into smaller bumps all over that were very painful. There were two blisters forming on my forehead with one on my eyelid. Those were painful too. It felt as if there were red hot needles poking my skin in the areas of these blisters. So I called the GP's office and scheduled and emergency appointment since I was getting more and more worried and whatever I had seemed to be progressing even further. When I got there, the doctor saw me and noticed the blisters on one side of my face and immediately she diagnosed me with Shingles. So I am now on an antiviral medication 5 times per day. I'll have to admit, the first couple of days on this medication I wasn't noticing anything and the virus seemed to be spreading to more of the left region of my head. I look like I was in a brutal fist fight since some of the blisters are starting to heal and look like scabs. My head is still in a lot of pain and I am taking lots of Ibuprofen to cope with the pain. I woke up this morning and my eyelid is a bit more swollen and vision in the left eye was blurry and worried me, but it was my eyelid pushing down because when I held my eyelid open with my finger, my vision was fine. It doesn't seem to be spreading anymore and the spots where the blisters are, are no longer as sensitive, they are just giving me a headache now. It will probably take a couple of weeks for all of these areas to completely heal. I am going to the GP again today just to have my eye looked at to make sure it is not spreading onto the sclera/cornea. I don't think it is otherwise my vision would be severely affected and I'm sure it would feel like bits of glass in my eye if it had spread to the eye. All in all, I am doing better today I think and will hopefully be fully recovered by the end of next week. I don't know why the stupid chickenpox virus decided to come out and play again. I have been reading all over the internet that it just shows up for no apparent reason, more common in elderly people but does occur in younger adults under stressful situations. Anyway, I'm going to upload new photos to the photo section here. They are pictures of my hike in Perth. Enjoy!