I got shingles again.

Caught it early, not early enough to prevent more damage. Shingles sucks, valcyclovir 1gm TID for 8 days sucks.

Still not back in cardiac rehab, but that's the joy of insurance, the needless, senseless waiting.

We managed to have a wonderful time at my best friends wedding despite my rotting nervous system. My friend was the happiest I've ever seen him and his new wife was as radiant and contented and unbothered as anyone could ask of a normally rather introverted person put into the center of attention.

Lots of happy tears between me and the missus that whole long weekend because of how loved and accepted and wanted our friends and friends families make us feel. Upon reflection on this with my counselor, she likes to use the framework of 'You've finally stopped going to the hardware store looking for milk and eggs.' Which startled me to hear because of the ease and clarity of it. I did not have an easy time that weekend physically, in fact spent several hours on the phone with my PCP's maternity-replacement frantically trying to get pharmacies to move my antiretroviral script so that I could avoid a full blown shingles outbreak. In the family I grew up in, any kind of minor inconvenience or stress on vacation or at a family event was the death of all joy and lightheartedness. I cannot convey the absolute shattering sense of relief I felt when I was able to say 'Yeah, I'm not feeling great, I'm going to go lie down and make some phone calls to try and improve things.' and the only response I get is 'We'll make sure we turn the AC way down, should someone bring you your backpack with your meds and water bottle?'

One more wedding in a few weeks, another close friend from high school, two of them actually. Batting a thousand so far.