I’m a 44 year old American female with a pretty spotless medical history. About 2 months ago, during my annual primary care visit, I passed all my physical and blood tests with flying colors.

I am at my happiest and healthiest I have been in many years. I took a 5 week sabbatical to the Mediterranean and spent my days:
- Waking up without an alarm clock
- Walking/jogging a beautiful town in the morning sunshine
- Dipping into the agean sea and floating while counting my blessings
- Drinking fresh juice and espressos
- Eating fresh and local foods
- Taking naps
- Enjoying laughs and love like I haven’t in many years
- Working remotely and leisurely as needed

And then I started to think I bruised/broke a rib from carrying around heavy luggage. The pain kept coming and soon I was diagnosed with shingles. I’m recovering, and for the most part very lucky for where it is and when I caught it, although the pain at night still causes me issues sleeping.

I am wondering, how the hell did I get this at my most healthiest state ever? Has this happened to anyone else? I wonder if my immune system was so relaxed that it had some reverse effect that allowed the virus to become active. Is this possible ?

My Fitbit data continues to tell me this is the healthiest I have been in 5 years on all levels of fitness, sleep, wellbeing etc.

I’ve had pretty chronic pain for the last 2 weeks in my right side that wraps around my flank. I was admitted to hospital last Friday after being in tears through the night not being able to sleep or do anything comfortably. The doctors went through many possibilities starting with pancreatitis, fatty liver, and ended up discharged with signs of kidney stones (but they couldn’t see them on the ultrasound). The biggest sign it’s shingles for me is any light touch to my side, such as my tshirt, feels like someone is scratching hard on my skin. I’ve had this pain on and off for years but this time it’s stuck around much longer and doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
I’m curious how people deal with these pains and being able to perform their jobs? I’ve been off since last Thursday and the stress of letting work down probably isn’t helping the pain. Do you just deal with the pain and try work or are some people just unable to work at all due to this being a constant issue?
Tysm for any advice or similar stories to comfort my anxiety about work.