Rush and Molly report that the illness David Letterman has that's forcing him to take sick days is shingles. Tuesday night, one of his eyes was very swollen and he joked about it: "Dave woke this morning with one of those medical gifts a swollen eye. Dave went to get it checked by a guy. The diagnosis: its either an irritation, an inflammation, or an infection. One can only wonder: Would Regis do a show with an irritated/inflamed/infected eye? Would Oprah? HA! Oprah wouldnt do a show with a temperature of 98.5." Shingles is a skin inflammation - no fun - and is also one of those diseases that are mentioned passingly in high school science books but stay lodged in your memory because of the name, like scurvy, beriberi and botulism. Dave and his staff are probably looking at shingles information from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to figure out the best ways to joke about shingles.
Published Feb 28, 2003
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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