Anybody ever had shingles

LIDODERM® Lidocaine Patch (lidocaine patch 5%)
Its indicated for shingles, but I used it peripheral neuropathy pain, and it was helpful.

 

Ouch! I've never had shingles, but I know it must be painful. Shingles is a basically a recurrent infection caused by Herpes zoster, the same virus that causes chicken pox. It affects certain dermatomes, which are areas of the skin supplied by certain nerves. When these sensory nerves are affected by the virus, that area of the skin is painful.

Treatment is supportive, meaning you can only treat the symptoms. Oral analgesics for the pain, topical corticosteroids for the inflammation. Viral infections are self-limited. Like you said, it takes time to run its course.

Do you have any other conditions that would affect your immune system? Diabetes? Previous stroke? Conditions such as these would place you in an immunocompromised state, and therefore susceptible to recurrent infections.

 

Is it true that shingles can cause scarring?

 

Yes, scarring can occur. If there is inflammation, and the area is damaged to the dermal layer...specifically the reticular dermis, scarring can occur.

However, if the damage is only the epidemal layer, no scarring will occur.

 

It's one of those things: sometimes some folks get through it easily and rather quickly, others seemingly never get rid of it. I'm one of the lucky ones. I had a full blown case about 12 years ago. My dermatologist treated me with valocyclovir and prednisone. Within 3-4 weeks it was gone, and never recurred. I understand it is very important to get on the anti-viral within 3-4 days; otherwise the treatment is less effective.

 

I had shingles about 6 or 7 years ago....the doc said it was the worst case he had ever seen in his 25 year career. It went in about a 8 inch tall strip from the center of my chest all the way around to my spine going under my righ arm. It was so bad that I had bruising underneath everything...I have scars on my back and under may arm although they aren't as pronounced as they used to be. To top it off I have no feeling in certain spots from it too....shingles are some nasty stuff.

 

My gf had shingles while hospitalized and going through breast cancer treatment, bonemarrow transplant and high dose chemotherapy treatment. She said the pain from the shingles was awful, but the doctors jumped on the treatment really quickly, I don't remember what was used back then, but she fought them for three to four weeks before they went away. They never returned and they didn't leave any scars at all. I just remember how bad she said the pain was in those areas. She had them on her left side at her hip and waist area and they went part way around towards her stomach and around her side towards her back.

 

My dad had it over his eye, doctor gave him Valtrex (valocyclovir) and it started to go down right away. She said if left alone near the eye it can cause blindness. Try to get valocyclovir and prednisone.

 

Cancer is another disease that will place the person in an immunocompromised state. Recurrent infections are common when the immune system is weak.

I'm sorry to hear about your girlfriend. How is she now?

 

I had the shingles about 15 years ago. I never went to the doctor and just used otc painkillers. It lasted about 10 days.

 

I'll never forget getting chicken pox when I was 21, I caught them from my 5yr old niece. Actually, my niece, my sister, me and my brother all had them the same time. My little niece breezed right through them, but me and my bro were SICK, really SICK. I thought I was dying. High fevers, severe sore throat, pox everywhere, and I mean everywhere:embarassed:. Chicken pox is nasty business for adults. My brother still says he prays he never gets shingles later in life after going through that.
I hope you feel well soon.

Tmygun

 

I had an outbreak of shingles about 10 years ago. It started as a rash on my forehead. I thought I had poison ivy or poison oak, because it itched like crazy. But then it started to move down the right side of my face, over my eyebrow and then on the just the right side of my nose. It was like you drew a line down the direct center of my face. The pain was incredible. I was stupid for not seeing a doctor right away since they can treat it successfully in the first few days. I was lucky it did not affect my eyesight since an outbreak on your face and around the eye is very dangerous.

Seriously, all you GTers out there, if you had chicken pox as a kid and have not had shingles yet, you need to check out whether shingles vaccination is right for you. If you decide to not get vaccinated, then make sure you see a doctor within two days of a breakout. Enough said.

 

I had shingles about 8 years ago in boot camp. Your lucky they are on your torso. Mine where on my face! The whole left side of my face was a mess. My left eye is messed up cause of them. The only thing that ever helped me was to keep them dry. If you sweat, dry them off. Use a powder, like GoldBond or the like.

 

I had them also. Go to your Doc and he/she will prescribe some anti-viral meds...helped me a lot.

 

Yep, had them and as already said get to a doctor for valtrex or the like. If you let it just run it's normal course it will last longer and more risk of postherpetic neuralgia which is supposedly pretty bad in and of itself. The other reason to go see the doc is to see if they can figure out what has your immune system out of whack to allow the chickpox to reactivate.

 

if you have had chicken pox, not ever had shingles, you can get a vaccine.

can't have the vaccine once you've had shingles

 

I had it as a teenager 35 years ago.

Hurt like hell, took over a month to heal, still have scars from it.

 

I had the shingles exact same place you refer to, and yes VERY painful. My doctor put me on valtrex, ya know that herpes medicine and i think maybe tylenol 3 with codien to help me sleep. took about a week and a half to get back into life. the doc also said that it is a common area to get it and that it runs along a nerve line. get well dude i know it hurts. man i hope i never get that **** again.

 

I was 35yrs old when I caught chicken pox from my 8yr old son, He breezed right thru it, It knocked me down for two weeks, My skin was so broke out I could not sleep for days, from the burning making the systems worse,
I went to the doctor aside from charging me 50 buck for the office call said there was nothing he could do at that point, He had me leave out the back door of the office as to not scare the other people in the waiting room!

I actually thought I was dying for two weeks, Some scaring on my face lasted for years,