The swollen lymph nodes bug me, though. Why would a viral nerve inflammation cause that? There’s infection somewhere, and a pretty good sized one, judging from the size and tenderness of the nodes in front of my left ear, below my left ear and adjacent to the jaw.
Did your husband have this with his case of shingles?
You can get swollen lymph nodes with Shingles.
Check out the shingles page. Then click on home. Then save it to your favorites. It's very well written for the general public.
If you're not getting better after a while, then another diagnosis needs to be considered.
My husband just had shingles, and we thought they were bug bites until his lymph node under his arm started swelling. It was then that I insisted he go to the doctor, and he was Dxd with Shingles. I realize your post was a couple days ago, and I’m guessing you’re in the worst part of things right now. Don’t hesitate to call back your doc if the Gabapentin isn’t working for the pain — you may need something more along the lines of a “real” pain killer like vicodin (my hubby got Oxycodone for his). [It can take WEEKS for Gabapentin to actually start working, or to go up to a high enough dose (I’ve been on it for several years now due to nerve pain in my neck and back).]
Hope you are doing alright. I know my hubby was pretty miserable for about 2 weeks there.
Don’t know if this was covered later in the thread, but I saw another post and thought I’d add to theirs — When one has Chicken Pox you never really get rid of it. The virus goes into the nerves of the back and can stay dormant for decades. They told us that stress is a big factor in getting shingles (esp. as my husband was only 38 when he got it - just turned 39 in Nov.). Two things that may help you to prevent permanent nerve damage — L-Lysine which you can buy as a supplement in the pharmacy dept. as well as B-Complex Vitamins. It won’t interfere with any of the Shingles meds, but be sure to check with the pharmacist or your doctor if you’re on other meds. They are both “B” vitamins and will help you keep your strength up as fighting this really takes a lot out of you. The recommendation for L-Lysine and the B-Complex vitamins came from fellow FReepers when I asked for advice and prayers for my hubby. :)
Did your husband have this with his case of shingles?
First off, this is a guess so take it for what it's worth. I don't really think swollen nymph lodes would necessarily mean there's an infection. Lymph nodes act as filters to clean out any infection. Because your body is inflamed due to the shingles it could be they're responding to your body being out of whack.
Are you running a fever? Also did the doc on the box prescribe an antibiotic? Because if he did then unless there's a secondary infection which is bacterial in nature, the actibiotics won't work on viruses.
Unfortunately for my husband he had very few lymph nodes which weren't swollen. Leukemia keeps the body's infection fighters, in this case white blood cells, at a high count so his lymph nodes worked overtime even when he said he felt fine. One of the things they used on him was prednisone, in addition to chemotherapy. There was a time when he was getting 2 units of platelets every day. We could tell when he'd had an an infusion because his energy level would go up some.
The best advice I can give you is to keep a close watch on your break out and if need be, get to the ER (today) or to your regular doctor first thing tomorrow.