Bad Sleep

I don't think I've gotten worse sleep than in the past three weeks.
Shingles makes for some really crappy sleep.
I finally just got out of bed tonight after trying to fall asleep for almost two hours.
It's not excruciating and ceaseless pain that is keeping me up now, like it was two weeks ago.
Now my healing and still raw blister remains are ITCHY.
Itchy from the inside, and if I scratch, it actually kind of hurts.
My arm feels like it is hot from all the scratching.
Lying on my back doesn't feel good because the nerves in the side of my elbow hurt and my back shoulder itches.
Lying on my other side doesn't work because my itchy left arm doesn't know how to lie over my body without itching and uncomfortableness.
Lying on my shingles side just makes it itch and cramp up and ache.
And lying on my stomach makes everything happen all at once.
Luckily, Dave is a deep sleeper so I'm not waking him up tossing from one side to the other and getting up every few minutes.
The sound screaming in my head: AARRGGHH!!
(The image to accompany that is Charlie Brown looking at the sky and yelling this in frustration.)

I am so done with this shingles business.
I am deeply thankful not to be in terrifying agony anymore.
I'm thankful to have had the blisters themselves for only a week instead of two or three, even if they were followed by painfully open sores.
I am thankful to be on this end of it, rather than at the beginning, that night three weeks ago when I remember thinking, "Oh shit, this is going to take a long time and it's going to be painful as hell. God help me!"
I am thankful for the thriving and growing little person forming every day inside my womb.
But I am so unbelievably over having shingles already.
Wearing clothes is uncomfortable because anything that rubs against my skin now makes it itch, whereas before it was just plain painful for anything to touch the blisters and open sores.
I wish there was a way I could sleep while in the bathtub, because immersed in hot water, my skin calms down and so does any pain in my nerves.
If I weren't pregnant, I'd be taking some Benadryl right now.
It is just plain uncomfortable and I'm not exactly sure how I'm supposed to fall asleep and stay asleep.
I've been waking up 3-5 times a night, then having to get myself back to sleep all over again.
Sometimes waking with a major cramp in my elbow because the blood isn't circulating as much as when I'm up and moving around.
So I get up and move around and check email at 3 am.
(In case you're wondering what I'm doing on email at that ungodly hour.)
I have a feeling I will be taking a snooze on the couch sometime tomorrow to catch up on lost sleep.

Okay, I've had a snack, vented my frustrations a bit; I suppose I can go back to bed and try to breathe and get myself to sleep.
At least I'm having plenty of opportunities to take in extra calories in the hopes of gaining the weight I need to gain for my pregnancy, which was a challenge for me when I was carrying Dahlia.
Thank God for my appetite, and the abundant good food we got at the shuk on Friday when we had a rental car.
Wish me luck sleeping tonight...