I woke up with a sore scalp on the right side, as though someone had pulled my hair, hard... as Rob says, my hair hurt! It was not as bad as what he went through, but quite uncomfortable nonetheless. I didn’t pay much attention, since my hair is very long and I assumed it had caught under the pillow, or under hubby’s head and been pulled over a long period of time while I slept. It wasn’t until I read other people’s diaries on this site that I realized it was the beginning of the shingles pain that accompanies RHS! The scalp pain gradually lessened over the next several days.

Besides, I was too busy to worry about small stuff like that. I spent most of the day in Ma’s attic, emptying the last of the barrels and boxes. The house clean-out guys were coming tomorrow with a dump truck to haul the rest of the junk away. Ma would spend the rest of this week with my brother and his family.

I noticed a place in the fold behind my right ear that was painful to the touch, as though a pimple was developing there. I ignored it, did a mountain of laundry, and packed for our weekend. We felt we had truly earned some time away!

Ma had insisted on being there for the two days the clean-out guys were working. She shouldn’t have done it; it was very traumatic for her. Thank God she and my sister left today for the drive to Florida! I planned to go by the house one more time when we got back from our weekend, to make sure the guys cleaned up after themselves and run a vacuum over the rugs.

I woke up with a bit of a scratchy throat, on the right side only, and the pain behind my ear had spread to affect the area near the ear opening. Again, this was nothing to worry about. Big deal, a pimple and a cold, right? So early Friday afternoon we left for a long-anticipated weekend of Square Dancing to Silver Sounds and Round Dancing to Henry Barry at East Hill Farm, near Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire.

On arriving, we settled in, toured the barns and corrals, and greeted friends. Friday night we ate too much good food, then danced our feet into bloody stumps (just hyperbole, folks), and had a wonderful time. My ear and scratchy throat were no worse, so we even stayed for the late-night party after the dance.

At breakfast, I noticed that my right ear felt a little plugged up and I had a little soreness and swelling in the cheek in front of that ear. Great, I thought, my always-tender saliva glands are swelling in response to the oncoming cold... this cold will be a bad one! Later, at the Saturday morning workshop, I noticed that I was a bit light-headed, but this could be the normal slight vertigo I get every time my ears block up a bit.

There were no workshops scheduled for Saturday afternoon. I felt a bit tired, so I skipped the Keene Pumpkin festival and antiques shopping trips various friends had planned, attributing my tiredness to the, I thought, oncoming cold and the vigorous exercise. I opted for a nap instead. That evening, I felt rested, so we further mutilated our feet by dancing all evening. The light-headedness was still there, along with a strangely disconnected feeling. But, as long as I didn’t allow the men to twirl me around too much, I was dancing just fine. Even though the swelling was worse, we stayed again for the after-party.

When I awakened, I noticed that my scratchy throat was gone, but I was much dizzier, my ear was really sore, and the swelling and soreness had spread down into the side of my neck! The dizziness was not at all like the vertigo I had experienced in the past. Well, no sense in going home early, since we had planned to leave in the early afternoon anyway, so we stayed for the last two workshops, and left right after lunch. By that time, my ear was quite painful, the swelling was looking a bit like the mumps, and I couldn’t walk a straight line!

As soon as we arrived home, I called the Urgent Care Dept. of our clinic, but it had just closed an hour before. I described my symptoms to the physician’s assistant manning the after-hours phone, and decided seeing a doctor could wait until morning. I still thought I was dealing with a bad ear infection, and an emergency room visit would require me to co-pay $50. I unpacked, did the laundry, and ate a light supper, then dosed myself with ibuprofen and went to bed about 9:30 P.M.