Free Press Columnist Writes About A Painful Medical Condition -- His Own

I'd like to share a bit of what I learned during a nasty eight-week skirmish with shingles, Brian Dickerson tells readers in a column published Thursday.

"Shingles springs from the same virus that causes chicken pox. For reasons no one fully understands, the virus becomes active again in some adults, typically those over 50, manifesting as a distinctive rash that blossoms into painful blisters.

"Usually, the blisters go away in a few weeks. But some cases persist, and one in five patients experiences significant pain for weeks or months."

"That's one reason I'm writing this column.

"The other is to make an urgent plea on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Michiganders who currently go without medical insurance, and to explore how differently my last two months might have gone if I had been one of them."