Conversation

Juliet: What did the doctor say?
Pierce: Doctor said I have shingles.
Gilbert: Shingles yah?!
Juliet’s mum(in hokkien): Lu ai chiak se ji tang bok……….ki kua hi kor cha bo lo kun chin kiang eh…….
.
.
.
The rest of the people jumped in…..

I’m not Dr. House but that sounded serious  right? Further check in wikipedia reviews more info that I want…

Also apparently, a lot of aunts and uncles like to play doctors.. my wife included….

shin·gles ( P ) Pronunciation Key (shngglz)
pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb)

An acute viral infection characterized by inflammation of the sensory ganglia of certain spinal or cranial nerves and the eruption of vesicles along the affected nerve path. It usually strikes only one side of the body and is often accompanied by severe neuralgia. Also called herpes zoster.

Source: Dictionary.com

Herpes zoster

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Herpes zoster, colloquially known as shingles, is the reactivation of varicella zoster virus, leading to a crop of painful blisters over the area of a dermatome. It occurs very rarely in children and adults, but its incidence is high in the elderly (over 60), as well as in any age group of immunocompromised patients. It affects some 500,000 people per year in the United States. Treatment is generally with antiviral drugs such as aciclovir. Many patients develop a painful condition called postherpetic neuralgia which is often difficult to manage.

In some patients, herpes zoster can reactivate subclinically with pain in a dermatomal distribution without rash. This condition is known as zoster sine herpete and may be more complicated, affecting multiple levels of the nervous system and causing multiple cranial neuropathies, polyneuritis, myelitis, or aseptic meningitis.

The word herpes comes from the Greek word for snake; it is cognate with herpetology. Interestingly, the skin disease is also commonly known as “snake” in Chinese.