Anybody here have any experience with shingles?

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nitrah55 · #1 Post by **nitrah55** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:46 pm

The disease, not the roofing material.

We think the Bride has it.

This comes after a two-day hospital stay precipitated by blinding back and abdomial pain which woke her at 3am Sunday.

Docs seem to have eliminated everything else, so they sent her home with painkillers, anti-shingle meds and instructions to call if anything they're not expecting happens.

She has no rash, by the way.

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #2 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:56 pm

I had the shingles. It hurt like hell! Mine went from my chest to my arm.

Bob Juch · #3 Post by **Bob Juch** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:12 pm

My father had them.

I've never heard of the pain being more than skin deep. From the way you worded your post it sounds like your Bride has pain deeper than that.

My best to her.

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #4 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:20 pm

Shingles hurt as much as having pleurisy and hurt more than giving birth. (I had lovely drugs for the birth of both of my children.)

fantine33 · #5 Post by **fantine33** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:25 pm

Bob Juch wrote:My father had them.

I've never heard of the pain being more than skin deep. From the way you worded your post it sounds like your Bride has pain deeper than that.

My best to her.

In my experience, that is not the case (being only skin deep).

I can't say that I was woken up from pain that required going to the hospital, but I'm on constant pain meds and narcotics anyway. And it still hurt like hell.

From what I understand, by the time you get a rash it's too late to do anything, so perhaps she headed it off at the pass.

Bactine was my best friend for weeks and I still have the scars.

fantine33 · #6 Post by **fantine33** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:27 pm

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:Shingles hurt as much as having pleurisy and hurt more than giving birth. (I had lovely drugs for the birth of both of my children.)

I remember the pain being terrible, but I can't quantify it. I think it's like childbirth and getting tattoos: you don't think it hurt that bad until you do it again. Then it's "oh, yeah, I remember this now!" Ha!

sunflower · #7 Post by **sunflower** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:28 pm

I've never had chicken pox so they say I can't get shingles, although I can still catch chicken pox at some point. Right about now I'm thankful though, it sounds awful!!

Ritterskoop · #8 Post by **Ritterskoop** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:28 pm

I hear it itches or hurts under the skin, somehow. Mom had it in her mid or late 50s, but only briefly, and another friend in his 40s had it a year or two ago.

bazodee · #9 Post by **bazodee** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:40 pm

It is a manifestation of herpes zoster virus and is contagious to those people who have never had chicken pox.

They manifest in horizontal bands across the body called dermatomes, most often only on one side. Depending on where they are situated, other secondary symptoms may occur, like Bell's Palsy. Your doctor needs to hear about progress, especially if there are any neurological effects.

sunflower · #10 Post by **sunflower** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:47 pm

bazodee wrote:It is a manifestation of herpes zoster virus and is contagious to those people who have never had chicken pox.

Contagious, yes, but if you haven't had chicken pox, you would catch chicken pox from someone with shingles (not shingles). Then it could re-emerge as shingles later. But it would manifest as chicken pox first. At least that's what my doctor tells me and since she went to med school, I believe her.

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #11 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:48 pm

All I remember is that I was given Vicodin for the pain and I needed it.

TheCalvinator24 · #12 Post by **TheCalvinator24** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:50 pm

I had a mild case (it was even diagnosed on the Bored, causing me to go ahead and call my Dr.). The pain was rather aggravating. I can't imagine what a normal or severe case would feel like. It actually attacks the nerve endings, and the rash is only a manifestation.

TheCalvinator24 · #13 Post by **TheCalvinator24** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:51 pm

three of my daughters wound up with Chicken Pox after my case of shingles.

sunflower · #14 Post by **sunflower** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:52 pm

TheCalvinator24 wrote:three of my daughters wound up with Chicken Pox after my case of shingles.

Was this before the vaccine was around?

TheCalvinator24 · #15 Post by **TheCalvinator24** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:55 pm

sunflower wrote:
TheCalvinator24 wrote:three of my daughters wound up with Chicken Pox after my case of shingles.
Was this before the vaccine was around?

Vaccines?

sunflower · #16 Post by **sunflower** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:56 pm

TheCalvinator24 wrote:
sunflower wrote:
TheCalvinator24 wrote:three of my daughters wound up with Chicken Pox after my case of shingles.
Was this before the vaccine was around?
Vaccines?

For chicken pox?

fantine33 · #17 Post by **fantine33** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:56 pm

sunflower wrote:
TheCalvinator24 wrote:three of my daughters wound up with Chicken Pox after my case of shingles.
Was this before the vaccine was around?

I wasn't even aware they had a vaccine! But when I was a kid, chicken pox was encouraged. If one kid in the family got it (our epidemic started with my cousin), you tried to get everybody to come down with it, just to get it over with and out of the way.

sunflower · #18 Post by **sunflower** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:58 pm

fantine33 wrote:
sunflower wrote:
TheCalvinator24 wrote:three of my daughters wound up with Chicken Pox after my case of shingles.
Was this before the vaccine was around?
I wasn't even aware they had a vaccine! But when I was a kid, chicken pox was encouraged. If one kid in the family got it (our epidemic started with my cousin), you tried to get everybody to come down with it, just to get it over with and out of the way.

There is definitely a vaccine, I'm guessing when I say it's been around for 5 - 10 years.

I have to decide if I want to get vaccinated, my doctor's advice is yes, because if I happen to get pregnant and catch it while pregnant it can result in severe birth defects. And that's not good!

fantine33 · #19 Post by **fantine33** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:06 pm

sunflower wrote: There is definitely a vaccine, I'm guessing when I say it's been around for 5 - 10 years.

I have to decide if I want to get vaccinated, my doctor's advice is yes, because if I happen to get pregnant and catch it while pregnant it can result in severe birth defects. And that's not good!

That explains why I don't know about it.

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #20 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:08 pm

fantine33 wrote:
sunflower wrote:
TheCalvinator24 wrote:three of my daughters wound up with Chicken Pox after my case of shingles.
Was this before the vaccine was around?
I wasn't even aware they had a vaccine! But when I was a kid, chicken pox was encouraged. If one kid in the family got it (our epidemic started with my cousin), you tried to get everybody to come down with it, just to get it over with and out of the way.

My girls have both received the Chicken Pox vaccine.

Catfish · #21 Post by **Catfish** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:09 pm

sunflower wrote:There is definitely a vaccine, I'm guessing when I say it's been around for 5 - 10 years.

You are correct. When my son was in preschool (he's 14 now) and we were deliberating whether to get him the new vaccine, he came down with chickenpox, saving us the decision.

Bob Juch · #22 Post by **Bob Juch** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:12 pm

sunflower wrote:
TheCalvinator24 wrote:
sunflower wrote: Was this before the vaccine was around?
Vaccines?
For chicken pox?

Not only is there a vaccine for chicken pox, there's one for shingles that just came out.

ghostjmf · #23 Post by **ghostjmf** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:14 pm

I have a cousin with a very very bad case; this is no laughing matter. Especially not if it affects your eyes. So take it seriously. Another cousin was telling me that there's a vaccine being made available for people with familial patterns of developing shingles, but its only given to people over 60. Shingles is related to a previous chicken pox infection, generally in childhood, which somehow reactivates in older age as a nerve infection (the virus has been hiding in the nerves all that time).

sunflower · #24 Post by **sunflower** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:15 pm

ghostjmf wrote:I have a cousin with a very very bad case; this is no laughing matter. Especially not if it affects your eyes. So take it seriously. Another cousin was telling me that there's a vaccine being made available for people with familial patterns of developing shingles, but its only given to people over 60. Shingles is related to a previous chicken pox infection, generally in childhood, which somehow reactivates in older age as a nerve infection (the virus has been hiding in the nerves all that time).

Once you "catch" it, is there anything you can even do? Or is it like chicken pox in that it kind of just has to run it's course? It has always sounded so awful.

TheCalvinator24 · #25 Post by **TheCalvinator24** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:18 pm

I was aware of the vaccine. I think the Chicken Pox vaccine is completely unnecessary.

Of course, we eschew the rest of the panoply as well.