Shingles... again.

A couple of years ago, I was in Belgium and got this unbelievably painful "burn" on my side...I couldn't figure out what I had bumped up against that would burn me so bad, right about where my elbow hit my side, just above my waist. It was a burn about as big around as my fist, and was blistered... it was painful even to wear a shirt or garment top. After a day or two and watching it get bigger and bigger until it was all up and down my side, I broke down and went to the Belgian doctor. He took one look at it and said, "you've got shingles". "Shingles?!" I exclaimed. "I thought that was an old man's disease!" He looked me straight in the eye and said, "It is." He prescribed some kind of brand new experimental medicine for me, and told me I could get it at the Apoteek (the pharmacy) located down on the corner. As I was putting my shirt back on, he began to write up the bill. "Can I see your Belgian identity card? I need that for the records," he asked. The previous times we'd spent months in Belgium, we came on a formal education visa and had official Belgian identity cards, which the government requires everyone to carry. But this time, I was there for a shorter stay, and was covered under the tourist visa and didn't have Belgian identification card. "Sorry, I don't have one. Here is my passport," I offered. Under the tourist visa, your passport serves as your identity card and must be carried with you at all times. "Oh, no! You don't have an identity card? Oh, no, oh, no. Please don't shoot the messenger. I'm going to have to charge you full price for an office visit. I'm very sorry, there is nothing I can do, I have to charge you full price. You don't get the ... how you say... socialized medicine charge that you get with an identity card. You pay full price. I'm sorry. You have to pay me cash for the entire amount. I'm very sorry. I'm so sorry." Dreading having to pay that much, even if insurance might reimburse me later, I groaned, "How much?" He shuddered, cringed, and said, "twenty euro." About $26 at the current exchange rate. Wow. My co-pay at home is $40! So I pay, and take the prescription across the street to the apoteek. I hand him the prescription,. and his eyes bulge. "Oh, you must have shingles. Well, there is little to help you, but this medicine is the latest try... it's still kind of experimental, but maybe it will help. It is certainly the best thing we have found so far. May I see your Belgian identity card for the billing purposes?" No identity card. Here's the passport. "Oh, no. An American, with no identity card? Oh, no, no, no. Oh, please, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, but this prescription is so expensive, and now you have to pay full price. I wish there was something I could do, but I can't, the law says I have to charge you full price.... and your doctor is prescribing a 30-day supply. I'm so sorry..." How much? "Thirty euro." About $40. For the whole bottle! The medicine doesn't seem to help much. At the end of two weeks, my trip is over and I come home, and I go to my doctor. "You've got shingles," he says. "Shingles? I thought only old people get that," I said. "Yep," he replied, with a straight face. Although he then added, "although anyone can get it, usually we see it most in old people..." Like you. He didn't say it, but I knew he was thinking it. I showed him the prescription from Belgium. "Yep, that's exactly what I would prescribe. It's the latest thing we have. Keep taking it." Just for fun, as I leave, I walk next door to the Weyers Cave Pharmacy. "Just out of curiosity, how much is this prescription?" The pharmacist looks at the name on the bottle, then looks in her book, and as she searches, she asked, "how much did you pay for that?" "About forty dollars," I replied. "Well, you could have gotten it cheaper here. Our price is only $34... per pill." PER PILL? "No, no, I paid $40 for the whole bottle. A thirty day supply. You mean it costs $34 per pill? Almost a thousand dollars for a bottle?" "Yes, but you only pay your co-pay, which is $60 for a 30-day supply. The insurance company pays the rest. Surely you got the price wrong. It would never sell for $40 for that whole bottle. Where did you buy it?" "Belgium." She gives me a blank stare. I leave. I continue in pain for about two more weeks, after which the pain subsides, my wounds heal, and I'm back to normal in about four more weeks. I forget all about it. Well, that was about two years ago. Fast forward to just two weeks ago. Two Fridays ago, I started being bugged by something sticking me, right on the side of my hip. It felt like a splinter or thorn or something had become imbedded in the top of my pants pocket and was sticking me like a needle. I checked, and found... nothing. Nothing in my pocket. I check my skin. No marks, no punctures, no sign of anything. Off and on over the next few days, I kept suffering from this intolerable sticking sensation that felt exactly like a hot needle sticking into my flesh. Same place each time. No sign of anything, no punctures, no marks...and it only lasted a couple of minutes, but was occurring with increasing frequency. By last weekend, I was getting "stuck" several times a day, no matter what I wore. This area is about ten inches lower than where my shingles blisters were last time, so I didn't associate the two. Then, yesterday, bang... I've got blisters. Big red spot. Shingles. Classic. Man, it hurts. I can't even stand to sit down, because the side of the chair (the arms, for example) touch it. It hurts to walk. It hurts to stand still. It hurts to sit. It really hurts to lie down. I've got a red spot the size of a silver dollar, with a tiny blister in its middle. No, it isn't a brown-recluse spider bite... I got one of those on our Kentucky vacation a few years ago so I know what that looks like (verified by the doctor), and although this looks similar, it's definitely not that. This is classic shingles. So the question is: do I go to the doctor? They still can't really do anything to cure it, so why bother? If they would give me some Percocet or Codeine or morphine, stuff that would make me high... er--happy--, well, okay, maybe. But they probably won't. So why spend money when the money won't buy anything? I'll just keep on "toughing it out" like I did last time, and in a couple of weeks, it'll go away. Won't it? Yes, I had chicken pox when I was kid. (As well as red measles, German measles, mumps, and something else I can't remember right now.) I don't remember the chicken pox hurting, I remember them itching. This is supposed to be like chicken pox, but it doesn't itch... it BURNS. It's like a red-hot needle sticking in you. Only now, it's like a two-inch diameter red-hot needle. I can see where the idea for the voodoo doll and zombie pins came from.