shingles??

[the big dawg]

Anyone ever had shingles?? Old peoples version of the chicken poxs I think.

Woke up Wednesday morning with an ear ache and the top left side of my scalp was hyper-sensititive to the touch. I shave my head bald so there is nothing there but skin.

Thursday morning I woke up with same ear ache and a small welt/rash just above left eye brow. Kind of felt like something was crawling on my skin and eye brow.

Today I woke to a welt the size of a half dollar and rash from the crease of the outside of left eye up and across my eye brow. Called DR. said yep it is shingles. Lucky so far and no blisters. Hyper-sensitive skin and crawling sensation i maddening though.

Suppose to stay away from women who are regnant, small kids, elderly, cancer patients and people with HIV.

Mayo clinic site said 50% of all people who live to 85 will have shingles at some point in time.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/shi...N=risk-factors

[sojomojo]

I recently asked my Doctor about this and he gave me an Rx for the vaccine. Unfortunately, my health insurance won't pay for it. The cost is well over $200. I've been debating whether or not to pay it out of my own pocket or roll-the-dice and hope I never get it. With my luck . . .

[halogenic]

I had them once. I'd been in hospital for about 5 weeks having my jaw reconstructed. By the time I got out my immune system was pretty low. Hospital is a great place to pick things up. I looked like a mess, jaw all messed up and covered in welts. I don't remember a lot of detail now though.

[nomates]

Well it seems you caught it early and the DR would have prescribed little blue tabs that will take care of soon enough. That though wont relieve the pain which can be very severe indeed. The pain will take 1-2 months to go away, but in bodybuilding terms that means three weeks without strength on one side, and on some body parts. I had shingles about 2 months ago and am only starting to gain strength back on my right side (which is normally the strongest - and now the weakest for sure.)

Shingles lays dormant in your body if you've ever had chicken pox and may turn up decades later, blisters and severe pain. I was put on ******** for three weeks.

[JSK0703]

I had shingles when I was 35. Always thought of it as something you get later in life but my doc says it's not uncommon to get it earlier. I had it on my right hip. At first it was itchy like crazy then it started to bubble up and became painful. The muscles in that area started to ache and it became painful for me to even walk or bend over.

I initially thought I had been bitten by a spider or something while sleeping so I delayed the doctors visit a few days. She put me on an antibiotic and also gave me a topical cream to apply. Cleared up about 7-10 days later.

The really weird thing is still sometimes get a false sense of itchiness in that area. Sometimes it is so itchy I swear I'm getting shingles again.

[kidvid82]

I recently asked my Doctor about this and he gave me an Rx for the vaccine. Unfortunately, my health insurance won't pay for it. The cost is well over $200. I've been debating whether or not to pay it out of my own pocket or roll-the-dice and hope I never get it. With my luck . . .

Pay for it, I have suffered shingles are even years later the nerve endings itch, I get troubled on extreme hot days.

[sojomojo]

Pay for it, I have suffered shingles are even years later the nerve endings itch, I get troubled on extreme hot days.

I should have taken your advice. Instead, I decided to wait until I turned 60 year old. That’s when my health insurance would pay for the shingles vaccine. As fate would have it, one week after I turned 60, I got shingles.

Before the shingles erupted on my skin, I felt like sh*t for a week. The entire core of my body ached like I had been taking body blows from Mike Tyson. I was worried that I had some serious medical issue because the pain wouldn’t go away.

After a week of pain, I woke up and noticed what looked like bed bug bites or hives on my chest and back. I knew right away that I had shingles. I was some what relieved because it helped explain the reason for the pain.

I immediately called my primary physician for an appointment, but no appointment was available for a week. I knew that I need to get some anti-viral medication within 72 hours of the shingles outbreak for it to be effective. I told the clinic’s appointment desk that I had the shingles and I needed to see a physician ASAP for a prescription for the anti-viral medication. I’d be willing to see an OB-GYN or a proctologist. Luckily, the clinic’s appointment desk understood the urgency and I was able to see a physician within an hour.

I got a Rx for Valacyclovir and Hydrocodone for the pain. I’m not sure they did anything for me. The Hydrocodone was useless for the pain.

It’s been four long and painful weeks since my shingles outbreak and I haven’t had a full night of sleep since then. The shingles on my back made me look like the Elephant Man with a huge eruption of blisters. The blister rash is almost gone, but the pain still persist. Surprisingly, last night was my worst night of pain. The burning, the throbbing and the stabbing pain, and the itching kept me awake all night. It’s nerve damage and nerve pain is the most difficult to ease. After four plus weeks, it seems like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. I’m hoping and praying that this won’t be a chronic pain that I will have to live with forever.

I know the shingles vaccine isn’t 100% effective, but if I had known that shingles would be this painful and continue for this long , I would have paid the $220 for the vaccine out of my own pocket.

Shingles will affect 2 out 3. If you haven’t got it yet, there’s a good chance that you will. It’s a time bomb waiting to explode. When it happens, you won't believe how painful it will be and the impact on your life. It might be the most painful thing that you'll ever experience in your life. The only thing that I’m grateful of is that I did not get shingles on my face / eyes.

[mjf100215]

I've had shingles. It sucked. Doc says they typically show on one side of your body only. Mine were on the left side of my chest. You just have to wait for them to go away. The sores are painful. Even moving hurt as you move and stretch the skin, they'd pull.

Good luck. It's not a fun ride.