If you are 50 years older or older, Please contact your physician immediately and ask about the vaccine to prevent Shingles. This is a very painful disease. I can stand a lot of pain but, Shingles (which they call Zosters Herpes – comes from the Chicken Pox virus that stayed in your spinal system after they were gone, and something triggers it. Which follows a path along your nerve endings. You can have debilitating pain and itching, numbness, and a rash that reminds you of Chicken Pox.
My husband had Shingles in April . His Shingles started on his Neck and spread to his shoulder and chest (he was given Valtrex for 7 days taken 3 times a day. Cost $180 for 21 pills) . Mine started in May. My Shingles started with uncontrollable itching on my thigh for over 24 hours. Then the next day my lower back (right below my waist) felt like it went out and I was in extreme pain and a burning feeling. The next step was numbness on my thigh from right above my knee to 3/4 the way up my thigh. From there it went to breaking out on my lower back and thigh, which then spread to my hip and more over the top and sides of my thigh to my knee. I received the same prescription as my husband, plus pain medication and a neurapathy medication to hopefully prevent permanent damage of the nerves. The pain was horrendous, unrelenting at times, and debilitating. My pain would start at my lower back below the waist to my hip and down the sides and top of my thigh past my knee. The pain shoots from my back to my knee and was a constant stabbing pain.
Symptoms can be a headache, flu, the light bother your eyes. It may take a couple of days for the Shingles rash to show up. The rash can often be mistaken for spider or bug bites. My first symptom was uncontrollable itching of my thigh, then numbness, and then my lower back, right below my waist felt like it went out. I was in extreme pain. My rash was on my lower back below my waist so I didn’t notice them for around 6 days). The rash spreads into groups of blisters along a path which my doctor said it travels along the path of the nerve that is affected. The rash then fills with liquid, much like chicken pox. It can take from 2 to 6 weeks for them to heal. First they will either break open, or form a scab. After the scabs have formed it takes a good month for the scabbing to disappear. You will still have skin discoloration from where the Shingles were, and this took about another good month to disappear totally. I used Calamine Lotion to alleviate the itching.
Cases Of Shingles That I Have Heard Or Know About
My father had Shingles years ago before they had any medication for it. He had his on the right side of his face, it went right down the center of his head, through his hair, down his forehead, nose and down to his chin. I remember so well how horrible he looked. The right side of his face was just raw with sores, that were oozing pus. No one could even touch his head or face as the pain was so intense. I remember him telling me after they were over and all was left was the permanent scars.
My Aunt had Shingles 2 years ago. She had hers on the right side of her face. She showed me pictures, the right side of her face was swollen beyond recognition. I didn’t even realize it was her until she told me. Her eye was swollen shut, she had sores on her face, her lips were swollen at least 5 times the size they were. They just protruded from her face. She thought the swelling was from a tooth she needed to have fixed. Needless to say the dentist told her she needed to go straight to the doctor. She was given similar medications, along with pain pills that would make her sleep. She said she was in extreme pain, and now she has permanent damage of numbness and stabbing pains to the right side of her face. The doctors told her she would have that for the rest of her life.
I also talked to another gentleman who said he had his Shingle 2 years ago. His were on his back and spread around to his chest and waist. He said the pain was unbearable and that it took 2 weeks for his Shingles to dry up. He now has permanent damage of pain and itching, which was diagnosed by a Neurological specialist.
My husbands said his Shingles itched a lot and he had a lot of discomfort with them. He healed in about 4 weeks, with the itching lasting another 2 weeks from the onset of the rash. He has no permanent damage.
There is no cure for shingles.
Anyone who has not had Chicken Pox can get them if they have been in contact with someone who had or was coming down with Shingles.
Others that a person with Shingles should stay away from are, anyone who has been ill, has a weakened immune system, children, babies, pregnant women. If you have been in contact with someone before you knew you had Shingles please let them know. For those who have not had Chicken Pox they will get them, for others Shingles is contagious and they can get Shingles. But, the only way they can get Shingles is if they already had Chicken Pox.
If you think you might have shingles you need to contact your doctor immediately. Even if you have pain or itching, or something that you have never had before, go have it checked out to make sure you don’t have shingles. I thought my lower back was out. But, it was only on the right side. I had no idea that I might have the possibility of Shingles, and even with all the signs I gave my doctor he still diagnosed it as my back.
When you have gotten over your Shingles you still might have some linger affects. Such as itching, burning, numbness and pain. This could last any where from one month after the Shingles are totally gone to months, years, or even for the rest of your life. I was told that if I was having any of the pain, itching, numbness or burning, that I should come back a month after they are gone to be tested to see if I have permanent nerve damage which is called Postherpetic neuralgia.
How my Shingles Progressed:
The pain started on or before 5/11/2007
Friday 5/15/2007 was miss diagnosed with lower back pain
Sores started on or before 5/17/2007
Monday 5/18/2007 was diagnosed with Shingles
They are still spreading 5/24/2007
Shingles stopped spreading 5/26/2007
I want to say a couple of things, they say it is only a couple of days before the rash shows up. That was not so for myself. People often mistake Shingles as bug bites(that is what my husband thought he had). If you ever have itching or pain on one side of your body that is unusual to you, go to the doctor immediately and have them check you for Shingles. A lot of symptoms throw the doctors off, they did for me, they thought it was my back and so did I.
6/3/2007 The Shingles have dried up, just waiting for all the scabbing to fall off. I am in extreme pain. Haven’t gotten more than 2 1/2 hours sleep in a row for 3 weeks. The pain has actually gotten worse instead of better. I am hoping and praying that there will be no permanent damage.
6/17/2007 – where the shingles were are lightening, still some flakiness to come off. There is an area on my thigh that still itches, burns and is painful at times. I also get a stabbing or shooting pain occasionally, and my skin feels like something is crawling under or on top of my skin on my thigh. Also the numbness comes and goes, it is a light numbness. This started my 5th week from when we noticed the sores, and the 6th week since the itching for one day and then pain started. 5 weeks ago is when the shingles started spreading. My Shingles also caused depression and difficulty sleeping.
7/6/2007 – I still have occasional pain, numbness and itching that comes and goes. My skin gets that crawling feeling occasionally. Most of the time the pain and itching is tolerable but, some days is is not. I have first started wearing regular clothes for longer periods of time (instead of light weight pajama bottoms). The wind or a breeze in the house will still sometimes be very sensitive. All in all things have gotten better, where the Shingles were is really fading nicely. Time will only tell if these symptoms will be permanent or not.
