SHINGLES AFTER A YEAR AND A HALF

Based on my experience what to expect after 18 months with shingles:
The shingles attack on my left eye began on Sept. 15, 2008. In the aftermath, I still have itching, aching (sometimes feeling like some one punched me in the eye, swelling, soreness, an unpleasant pressure, and numbness on my eyelid, above the eye, along the left side of my nose, on the left side of my forehead, and in the scalp. In addition, I get fatigued rather easily.
Oh, by the way, the little miseries of the aftermath are a 24-hour-a-day constant.
How have I improved? Within the past two weeks, I found I could read in bed again. I have been reading in bed for a half hour to an hour since my earliest boyhood. So I lost that pleasure for about 17 months. I have returned to limited reading, watching films again on cable, using the computer, a more restricted writing schedule, and exercise—although not as heavy as before shingles.
When this process began, my doctor told me not to expect a quick cure; that was followed a few months later with the doctor telling me to expect the aftermath to last from six months to a year. This past December, the doctor told me the aftermath probably would continue for another two to three years. That last diagnosis could be on the mark because I am 75 and people my age have been known to die in two or three years.
My great hope is to wake up one morning symptom-free. As an alternative, I would settle for diminished itching, aching, etc.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

Free e-books

Considering the issue of free e-books called to my mind a scene from a 1954 invitation to dinner at the home of Dot and El in Queens Village. Dot had been a high school classmate in upstate Binghamton of my girlfriend Ginger, now my wife.
The occasion was memorable for two reasons: for the first time in my life, I was 20, I ate spaghetti and meatballs in a tomato-based sauce. Even though I consumed pizza with gusto, I had steadfastly refused the classic spaghetti and meatballs made by my mother at home or on family outings to Italian restaurants. Crossing that culinary line plunged me into a love affair with pasta that has continued through the years.
And, the second reason: As we entered the little house in Queens Village those 55 years or so ago, the television was playing a commercial pitch that caught El’s attention. He waited until the TV offer was finished before he turned off the set and said with a smirk, “Nothing down, nothing to pay, just come in and take it away.”
El’s words bubbled to the surface of my mind a couple of years ago when I put my novel, THE DREAM DANCER, online as a free e-book. I was in search of an audience since I couldn’t get an agent willing to peddle the book to a traditional publisher. In the interim, I’ve learned that writers often offer their books free online as a stratagem to lure readers to buy their other works. So the free e-book is a good device for a writer in search of an audience and possibly paying readers.
Curious about the source of El’s immortal phrase “nothing down, nothing to pay, just come in and take it away” I Googled it. No hits with full expression, but 1,011 hits on shorter version of “nothing down nothing to pay.”
So, I now credit El as the originator of his wry remark: “Nothing down, nothing to pay, just come in and take it away.”

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.