Shingles is more common in people 50 and older. Hartman’s young age didn’t help with the diagnosis. As Hartman experienced, varicella zoster virus can cause a grab bag of symptoms that go beyond the typical torso rash. That’s the name for a shingles infection that strikes the facial nerve important to facial movement. To spare others the same trauma of a delayed diagnosis, Hartman arranged for Nagel to give a talk on the virus at the local hospital where staff missed the signs of the illness, known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome. She experienced terrible pain, hearing loss and weakened sensation on the right side of her face until the infection subsided. Hope Hartman had shingles in her right ear, which stumped the first doctors she saw. The pain subsided, and Hartman regained her hearing and the feeling in her face. Following an appointment with neurologist Maria Nagel of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Hartman was admitted to the university’s hospital to get another antiviral drug intravenously. Her right eye wouldn’t fully open or close. For about two weeks after her release from the hospital, Hartman coped with severe pain, hearing loss and difficulty eating. She “diagnosed it from an iPhone photo,” Hartman recalls.Īntiviral treatment didn’t fully clear the infection. She said it looked like zoster, better known as shingles, which is caused by the varicella zoster virus. Hartman was admitted to the hospital, where she started to lose sensation on the right side of her face.ĭuring that 2013 health crisis, Hartman’s husband, Mike, sent a picture of the ear to his mom, a nurse. The pain got so bad she went to a local emergency room, where the staff was flummoxed. At age 37, Hope Hartman developed a painful, burning rash in her right ear, in the part “you would clean with a Q-tip,” the Denver resident says.
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