Posted on 03/25/2016 4:20:04 PM PDT by Hostage
A very close friend of mine has had a bout of Shingles for several weeks and finally went to the VA Hospital to get help.
Shingles is a reactivation of the Chicken Pox that one might have had as a kid. It is the Herpes Zoster virus and it can damage nerves causing severe pain.
He is 61 years old and he told me November last year that a visit to the VA for shoulder pain had him diagnosed for tendonitis. So he followed steps for gently exercising to restore his movement and he took Ibuprofen for the pain.
He said that while at the clinic late last year, he was told he should have a Shingles vaccination but he declined as he did not know what it was and he was skeptical of vaccines in general. He said he was going to read up on it but got so busy that he forgot about it.
I drove him to the VA Hospital week before last because his pain was so severe and he hadn't been able to sleep for a week. I walked with him into the ER and he was nonstop apologizing to the staff that he didn't follow the advice to get a Shingles vaccination. A Nurse Practitioner saw him in the exam room and told him it was Ok that he skipped the Shingles Vaccination because it didn't always 'hit' anyways. He also said that likely his tendonitis was likely the Herpes Zoster virus emerging and not tendonitis. So it wouldn't have mattered whether he got a Shingles vaccine or not.
I thought the Nurse Practitioner did a great job calming him down. He was prescribed a 7-day course of Valtrez (an anti-viral) and Oxycodone. He took the Valtrex immediately while in the hospital but wouldn't take the Oxy because another vet who was waiting in the lobby had told him they were habit forming (which as a narcotic pain killer they are).
The NP told him to follow up with his primary in a week if the pain persisted. The appointment with the primary was more than a month out (talking VA here) so the NP suggested he do a walk-in to the primary clinic and tell them he was in pain.
Walking with him down to the hospital pharmacy, he seemed calmer. He said he had always been tough as an Ox and was never one to rush for medical help. He said he did not want to take the Oxy but he was so deprived of sleep he might have to. At the pharmacy dispensary, the pharmacy assistant assured him that the Oxy was only for one week and there was no danger of it becoming habit forming. She said it would take about a month before habit forming tolerance would be seen. He told her he would only take them if he could not get to sleep.
So I drove him home. The next day he told me he had taken the Oxy and it worked like a charm, barely felt any pain but he would continue with the Valtrex as his rash breakout had been worsening. He vowed to not take any more Oxy but he did. He told me several days later that after stopping the Oxy, the pain came back with a vengeance and so he took the Oxy again along with Ibuprofen.
Now he said he was deeply concerned that he was going to fall into the category of being addicted to painkillers and that distressed him greatly.
After one week he was finished with his Valtrex and his Oxy but was still having a lot of pain. I drove him back to the hospital and dropped him off. He wasn't supposed to drive while on Oxy and he had just taken his last pill a few hours before. He said he was sure the pain would return and that he best get to the clinic.
He called me after returning home and was relieved that he had been prescribed a non-habit forming painkiller called Gabapentin. Last week he told me that the Gabapentin was working but not always. One day he would be relatively painfree and the next day in a lot of pain.
Having had both of them, I agree gout is bad. I found shingles to be 100x worse.
From what I’ve seen Gabapentin is the best bet, I just toughed it out as I don’t tolerate drugs. I slept as much as I could.
Things with Lidocaine help a teeny bit and as the sores heal putting capsaicin on them will help the post pain which can linger forever.
My DIL did some TENS treatments on me. I have very little post-herpetic pain but 2 years on there are days when I can feel them.
I strongly disagree
Search PubMed for VitaminD which is actually a pro hormone
I have been taking 50,000 in of Vitamin D for YEARS with no ill effects
Every winter due to your low Vitamin D levels
Get your blood level of D checked and aggressively increase D intake until you D level is in the normal range
Search PubMed for Vitamin D and Shingles or Herpesvirus
Also try high quality nanoSilver as a topical soak
A little over 2 weeks, excruciating, I gave it alcohol poisoning and killed it. Also I used something called scalpicin, several times a day, a topographical, it helped a lot.
I had shingles and it hurts like a Mofo. I took anti virals and I think percocets. It went away in about two weeks.
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You’re fortunate, mine lasted about 3 months.
Some literature I picked up at the hospital said “Symptoms can last days, months, even years”.
Had them around my waist on the left side. Started out feeling like a muscle pull. Then what looked like blood blisters showed up. Got meds from my Dr. and the big symptoms went away within a few weeks. Had lots of trouble sleeping and getting comfortable on my bus commute. That was late Sep 2015 and I am still discolored and I have numbness where the blisters were.
You got that right. Been there had that. Get the vaccine. The pain, when bad, is like rubbing alcohol splashed on road rash. Hurts like the dickens
My “favorite” pain medication is 2 ibuprofen (200mg) and 2 extra strength acetaminophen (500mg) taken together-—every 4-6 hours (if needed)
My own physician recommended this when I had a brutal ear infection after flying.
Magic-—for me.
I’ve also used it post surgery and with shingles.
.
Yeah. They are serious stuff & I’m allergic to all. Including Lyrica. After 3 pills I knew I was dying but I had lost the ability to use my arms. I wanted to write my husband a note saying I love you but my arms would not move. Zombie is right, it was a nightmare. We took the sample pills back to the doc. Took about 10 days to recover. Many of my co-sufferers complain about the side effects.
They really didn’t give me anything for post herpetic neuralgia. I took the Lyrica for RSD/CRPS, a chronic dysregulation of the nervous system. Shingles wasn’t a picnic, but CRPS makes it look like one!
Stay away from the Oxy and other habit forming pain pills. Your mind/body wants it so bad that it essentially manufactures pain in order to keep you taking it.
I was plagued by cold sores until the early 80s when I first heard about L.Lysine-—in Parade Magazine of all places.
It was like a miracle for me.
.
This is where I go when problems arise.
http://www.earthclinic.com/cures/shingles.html
It amazes me what ACV will cure.
I have shingles right now. I’m in my 3rd week.
First, I took the Vicodin because the nerve pain was incredible. In no way did I feel it was habit forming. After 2 weeks, I stopped taking it without any withdrawal or desire to keep taking it. The pain was gone about 80% anyway.
Second, I was told this would last from 2 to 6 weeks, and it looks like it is going to be 6 weeks. I’m wondering if my sores are going to go away or if I will have them as scars.
I took some type of cyclavir to fight the virus. It seems to have worked, but who knows if the virus would have just run its course and gone away on its own.
I’ve also been told that I am susceptible to getting it again.
For those who haven’t had it, the nerve pain can be excruciating. Even the painkillers I had didn’t numb it down much. I have not been sleeping for the last 3 weeks.
But.... I do feel like I’m healing. The pain has subsided.
I do have tendinitis in both elbows at the same time I have this. It seems like too much of a coincidence to be unrelated.
Separate doctors have told me that shingles attack patches of nerves. Not an expert here. But my sores and nerve pain are very centralized on one spot of my torso. Except, days 1 and 2, I had nerve pain throughout my entire body.
No doc or nurse ever related a link between shingles and cancer FYI.
There is a vaccine for shingles, you should look into it.
I have one very large scar on my back but I never had many sores at once, I had new sores everyday for the whole time. I could feel them coming, it was like a very long hair being pulled through my skin.
My wife got L-Lysine and took at the start of it..Worked great!!
Every winter when my shingles shows up it manifests in an identical pattern.
Two 1/2 inch long by 1/8 inch wide blisters, one at the bottom of each shoulder blade, followed by hundreds of very small itchy sores on the rest of my back. Usually during all this, as the back sores go away, I get them on my waist and belly. The whole thing stops 8-10 weeks later when the original 2 blisters go away.
I’ll have to give the vitamin D thing a try. Thanks.
It seems to protect against viruses in general, which is great.
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