Overdue Health Updates

When Tyler was diagnosed with shingles, just after Father's Day, he was given a 7-day course of an antiviral medicine called Valacyclovir.  After a couple days of sleeping with pain pills, Tyler finally started to improve.  Unfortunately, once the medicine ran out, he gradually got worse again.  While the pain was bad, we were actually more concerned about his sensitivity to light, blurred vision, and the feeling that something was scraping inside his eye.

So...  We ended up in the ER on July 3rd, waiting to see an opthalmologist who could evaluate the permanent risks to Tyler's vision.  Thankfully, the eye doctors thought that his eye was only minimally infected.  The ER doctor prescribed another 7 day course of Valacyclovir and the opthalmologists prescribed some eye drops to relieve the swelling in his eye.

Interestingly (and somewhat sad), the eye doctors indicated that this was a REALLY big weekend in their field.  When we continued to look at them blankly, they explained that eyes and hands are the most frequent injuries of fireworks escapades.  One doctor even said "it was the Superbowl of their field."  Oops!  Hopefully all of you were safe for Independence Day!

After fighting with our insurance company Sunday through Wednesday, we were finally able to fill the prescription and get Tyler on the right path again.  He still has pain and sensitivity to light, but actually noticed some improvement yesterday.  I am worried that this 7 day course will not be enough to get him OVER this bout with shingles and am not looking forward to yet another fight with the insurance company to get them to pay for the medicine he needs.