Shingles

[WhiskyDisco]

I searched and found very little on this subject. I am in the very unfortunate position of having shingles. The pain is intense - it is like a sharp stabbing sensation across my abdomen, not on the rash itself but all around. I honestly feel like crying the pain is so bad.

It's been nearly two weeks now, and it's worse than ever. 10 days ago I developed a rash on my back, a few days later it spread to my abdomen.

Sleepless nights and I can't bear to have anything brush my skin. Honestly it's that bad!

I hadn't heard much about shingles until now - yesterday after calling 111 I managed to get a doctors appointment. Sitting in the literally empty waiting room I found a leaflet offering a shingles vacine. Apparently there is a lot of it about now and the NHS are offering vaccinations to the over 50s. I'm only 49 so am not quite eligible.

I'm taking paracetamol, which doesn't seem to touch the pain, some anti-viral tablets (5 a day) and a nerve painkiller that is pretty strong just to help me sleep.

I feel like a leper - my family are telling me not to do this, not to do that. It's treated as a bit of a joke but that's because they haven't had it. I am unsure about whether to go to work or not - I really ought to, but when do I stop being contagious? It's not clear.

[Silvanus]

I had shingles about 10 years ago, I had the rash around my right shoulder blade, it was sodding awful. I'd not heard about a shingles vaccine, hadn't realised one existed (might look into it). I had chickenpox as a kid so there was always the chance I would develop shingles. Had you had chickenpox when you were younger? as you can't catch shingles, but you can catch chickenpox from someone who has shingles (same virus, different presentation).

[FMOB]

I had shingles as a kid back in the 70's, it was not nice and having something dabbed on the rash everyday was excruciating.

I have seen the vaccine ads from Glaxo on the telly so I will ask the question.

[RATATTAK]

I had shingles last year, on my scalp LHS. It was fukin' painful. The only respite I could get was leaning back in a hot bath .

P.S. My doctor told me I couldn't have a jab after having had it.

[Hondashark]

If you don't start treating within the first few days then there's not much you can do, it'll go eventually.
I got it in the same place as you 4 years ago, sleeping was painfull along with breathing and moving but I'd just started a new job so still went to work and stayed away from children.

If you've had it 2 weeks you must be near the end now. It left me with some scars though.

[The Hypno-Toad]

FMOB said:

I had shingles as a kid back in the 70's, it was not nice and having something dabbed on the rash everyday was excruciating.

Snap! Me too. The stench from the paint on stuff got so bad that my mum had to get our next neighbour to come and help because she was gagging on it. Don’t know if I was delirious but I could hardly smell it. However, it must have been the right stuff because despite me having the rash up the side of my face and into my hair I didn’t get any scarring.

All I got was to look like Two-Face for a couple of weeks and three weeks off school. Which suited me just fine at the time.

If it’s any help to anyone, I had a very stiff neck for 24 hours before the rash started.

[Armitage.Shanks]

I believe the vaccine for two injections comes at a cost outside of NHS unless you fall within a defined category. My pal paid for it last year as a preventative measure after his father in his 80s contracted shingles and sadly died from it.

[FMOB]

The Hypno-Toad said:

FMOB said:

I had shingles as a kid back in the 70's, it was not nice and having something dabbed on the rash everyday was excruciating.

Snap! Me too. The stench from the paint on stuff got so bad that my mum had to get our next neighbour to come and help because she was gagging on it. Don’t know if I was delirious but I could hardly smell it. However, it must have been the right stuff because despite me having the rash up the side of my face and into my hair I didn’t get any scarring.

All I got was to look like Two-Face for a couple of weeks and three weeks off school. Which suited me just fine at the time.

If it’s any help to anyone, I had a very stiff neck for 24 hours before the rash started.

I don't remember if the stuff had a smell, I think having the rash poked and prodded with a tiny plastic spatula putting the stuff on was the more immediate concern to me. Interesting comment about residual scarring, I had the rash on my back but cannot see any scarring either.

Still getting shingles as a child is pretty rare.

[Ajax Treesdown]

FMOB said:

I don't remember if the stuff had a smell, I think having the rash poked and prodded with a tiny plastic spatula putting the stuff on was the more immediate concern to me. Interesting comment about residual scarring, I had the rash on my back but cannot see any scarring either.

Still getting shingles as a child is pretty rare.

My 3 year old boy had a nasty bout of shingles a month ago. Really bad rash on his lower arms. Didn't seem to bother him too much, but a couple of times he cried and said his arms were hurting. Took just over 2 weeks for it to all clear up, but has left some small marks from the rash. He had Chicken Pox about a year before too.

It seems to be making a bit of a comeback, as I hadn't seen any advertisements regarding shingles on TV, but over the last month there has been a bit of advertising regarding the shingles vaccine on TV.

[simon_harris]

I had shingles in 2020 shortly after what I now suspect to have been covid (had covid in feb, shingles in april) got on the phone to the Drs pretty quickly and was prescribed some antivirals and that cleared it up, total was about 10 days IIRC.

if you are two weeks in you should be pretty close to the end I expect.

I do recall there being some causal link between covid and shingles, as I understand it shingles persists in the nerves after chickenpox and can be triggered when you are tired/run down or though some other viral link. I was lucky it was just down one arm

[WhiskyDisco]

I'm taking Aciclovir 800mg (5 times a day) for the anti-viral and Amitriptyline 10mg (once a day) for the pain. I take it about 21:00, and when I go to sleep soon after I can, but then I wake up in pain again at 02:00.

Last night I took a Dihydrocodeine30mg that got me through the night. I'm just not used to taking medicine at all.

I can't remember the last time I went to the doctor. It must have been a while because the doctor asked me where my chemist was and I said I didn't have one, just give me a prescription and I'll go to the nearest one on th eway home. She said that's not how it's done now - she has to wire the prescription to a chosen chemist. That was news to me!

Edited by WhiskyDisco on Wednesday 11th October 12:03

[Paul Dishman]

WhiskyDisco said:

I can't remember the last time I went to the doctor. It must have been a while because the doctor asked me where my chemist was and I said I didn't have one, just give me a prescription and I'll go to the nearest one on th eway home. She said that's not how it's done now - she has to wire the prescription to a chosen chemist. That was news to me!

Edited by WhiskyDisco on Wednesday 11th October 12:03

This is the new fangled electronic prescribing, which I managed to avoid by retiring before it all came in. AFAIK she could have issued a prescription which sat in the system "on the spine" until you appeared in a pharmacy of your choice and asked them to download it and dispense it