Shingles Post your experiences, what helps what doesn't what is the best medical field for help?

I thought I had gotten over the worst of the developing pains and have new good medications that help me and eventually I could get back to my normal activity and Live. Surprise again. While laying in bed, suddenly I get a horrific burning pain down my leg and across the front to the midline, and across the back to the spine. it feels like a big electric discharge, that If I were to look at it, surely it would light up the room with a dual prong stabbing down the side of the leg, front and back and to the spine and the middle of the front and back. I had to get out of bed and try to walk it off, it burned and hurt and made the muscle of the leg tighten up and stay that way, makes it harder to walk but I still can. it has also tightened muscles in the front and back and they just stay clenched. This has made it harder to adjust to the situation. Well all I can do at this point is more pain killers. and get through it.

You are at some point in reading all of this stuff I wrote, wondering why is this guy going through all this ranting and bitching about his illness. Well, three reasons. One, to get it through the extremely thick headed that this is something to be avoided and not just a bs thing that only bothers someone else. Two, for those who may get it, to give them a heads up on what they may go through so they don't panic with each change in this damm illness. Three it puts all the crap i have gone through with this illness in one place so when someone asks what it is like, I can just refer them to this. Besides it gives me a place to bitch. HMFICDICK. ..... comming attractions..... going to see pain doctor this week, watch for new entries and see what i get to go through next. Get your shingles shot.

Ok I went to the PAIN doctor, whoopie. Now I am on 300 mg morning and nite of lyrica, a 25mcg/hr fentanyl patch, and 10 mg oxycodone for breakthrough pain, up to 2 per day. So how is that? Well, the fentanyl patch is replaced every 72 hours, great, except it wears off at 48 hours. So I spend the next day hurting like hell, unless I take more than the 2 per day oxycodone. So How to make it stretch?? Well I do all I can to find other things to occupy my mind and attention. Work around the house as best as I can, go talk to neighbors, or someone else at a bar or something to keep my mind of the f........pain. At night about 11 pm I take a pill and it helps me sleep til about 4 or sometimes 5 am, then I get up and shave and shower(to keep my mind occupied) and take my morning Lycria. I found the best way to take it is nothing to eat before at least an hour and then take it and then just black coffee for one hour after. It seems to help it to get working. In the evening when you have nothing else to do Vodka helps.. AT least me. 2 drinks and I am out for at least a hour. So doesnt this sound like fun. As I have said before, get the damm shingles shot. Unless you are really into suffering the tortures of the dammed. One possible beacon of hope has again presented itself. Nerve block. My PAIN doctor is proposing a nerve block to stop or reduce the pain. I really worry about someone messing with my spine and doing anything that might screw me up.. BUT as an alternative to what I am going through and may have to go through the rest of my life.... well It keeps looking better and better. So, I go back to the PAIN doctor again in a couple of weeks. I will let you know if I am going to get the procedure and what I have learned about it and what the expected outcome is. I have learned that nerve block is normally not done for shingles pain problems. Lucky me I'm the first or one of the first. Got any cheese??
If it helps I will be very happy. If not you can expect me to be bitching about it here. As I have said so many times before GET YOUR SHINGLES SHOT unless you are superman or superwoman, then NEVERMIND.

Here is another joy of shingles. Woken up out of a sound sleep, Which happens rarely..The sound sleep that is. Woken up by burning,pain, stabbing pain, cramping pain, tingling junping across your stomach pain. Have a fentanyl patch on, take my 300mg lyrica and then 5mg of oxycodone and I still feel like the devils from hell are playing with my nerves and pitchforks are poking me. Perhaps I deserve the torture I am getting, but I don't remember doing anything that bad in my life. well it is starting to calm down now to just two or three stabs a minute. Just had to gripe a little this morning. I was planning on sleeping late today I don't get that joy, so here is where I tell you to remember to get your shingles shot.

I will be seeing the pain doctor tomorrow to report on the results of his treatment. when I was there last, he spoke of another possible treatment. Nerve Block. This involves injecting the spine with various nerve block medications. I have always had a very strong aversion to anyone doing stuff to my spine... I guess from all the stuff you hear about something going wrong. Well after months of pain, you start to feel that you would do anything to stop the pain. So I will pursue the nerve block therapy. I hope it will work and I can stop taking the other medications to stop the pain. I will tell you how it goes and what all is involved in the process. GET YOUR SHINGLES SHOT

This is the third time I have written the message. Im sleepy and I fall asleep and erase the message. anyway. Got the spinal block done, It worked, about 75% reduction. I will let you know the long term effects. If anyone has had it done and can give some idea on how long it lasts, please write about it. I will let you know the longer term effects... I hope for the best.

Did you ever try the lysine ? Worked wonders for my son and knocked his out in a week. Nothing before that had given him any relief for his shingles around his waist. He says red marine algae had prevented any recurrence. Good luck.

Sorry for your trauma, I had it about a year ago and I'm still dealing with the Nerve issues too. The guy who mentioned the Colloidal Silver (Sovereign Silver Brand) in the earlier post was right and only at initial outbreak. Silver has been known for many years as an anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal. Think about your granny's silver tea service. Used for all those years to show guests that they were safe to drink your beverage and not get sick. This stuff works at outbreak by penetrating the pustule and can kill the live virus. Most people do not know they have it, scratch the pimple and spread live virus all over to re-seed on more skin tissue. I was able to contain my outbreak to 5-6 patches off the start and no secondary patches developed. As for the skin areas that healed, I still have severe soreness, muscle tension that can kill a horse, and some muscle spasms. Mine was on my head, neck, and shoulder. Two more things: 1) Shingles will happen on one side of your body and stop (think of a line navel to nose). If it jumps across the "hemisphere" to both sides, go immediately to the hospital. You are in mortal danger. 2) Shingles hits when your body is stressed/immuno-suppressed, tired or otherwise sickened. Keep up on vitamins, healthy meals, sleep etc. GET THE VACCINE !!!!

Well it has been a couple of weeks since the nerve block. It did not get rid of all the pain, but it did get rid of the major nerve sore spots. I don't know if it was related to one or two nerves but it stopped the major source of pain with the shingles gift of nerve damage. It seems to have knocked down about 70 percent of the pain in one area that was the worst. I still have other nerve pain and shooting pains, but it is a lot better. it is kind of like it still hurts but not as much, and you can put up with it a little better. I am doing a lot of stuff around the house since i got the block. I have gotten a lot more physical with what I can do. I may even start mowing the lawn again. I know if you live in the north you may say WHAT mow in november, but I am in florida and we get to mow year round. But we don't have to shovel snow. I notice with me the pain acts weird. If I try to tough it out and not take any pain pill, I get more and more tired to the point of falling asleep talking. If i take a pain pill, it knocks the pain down and I am more alert. Mabe someone knows why...if so please tell me. I think I know but I really am not sure. The downside of taking the pain pills is while it knocks the pain in the dirt it knocks something else in the dirt. Im not sure what I can do about that(yes I know about all the other pills and have tried them).. Help..ya know.....I need a new plan. At least Im alive and can function to some degree. Also, I have less pain when I am working hard, physically than other times. It is not just ignoring the pain, the shooting pain goes away also. when I stop and sit down to rest a while the pain comes back. CRAZY OR WHAT. If you have any knowledge to add to this monolog please feel free to comment. I can use all the help I can get.

I must have been very lucky, or I'm just too stupid to know when I hurt.
I had shingles, back in my 40's, on my thigh. The afflicted area really did not hurt much at all. Really just an area that looked like I had mild burns. Never hurt me at all.
My Dr. said there really not much you can do except to it run it's course. He did warn me to come back if it spread further up my thigh towards my nuts. In a few weeks it was totally cleared up.
Again, I have heard that this is one of the most painful ailments you can contract. So I just count my lucky stars it didn't go that way for me.

I am still doing quite well, (compared to before the nerve block). There is nerve pain almost all the time, but I have learned what positions work best for sleeping. Also, I find I really have to take a nap in the afternoon to get relief from just being bone tired. It is not a long nap, .. about an hour, but it re-energizes me significantly. Also, it depends upon what I am doing as to the amount of pain. If I work in a situation where I am moving around, doing physical labor, or even going for a walk...I have done a mile and a half without a problem ... other than my concern as to weather I would be able to make it. Moving around and doing thing seem to push the pain away. Sitting down and writing, or using the computer or watching tv is more painful than working physically. Strange! So, Its nice to not have pain when you are physically active, but you cant be physically active all the time. when I sit down my stabbing pains and other pains from the back and other areas involved in the attack continue their attack, however, they are considerably reduced and I can handle them with the pain killers I have. Presently, I am on 300mg lyrica twice a day, a .25mcg fentenal patch, replaced every third day, and Oxycodone 2 10 mg per day. Life is not perfect but it is a lot better than it was before the nerve block. I tried something the other day, taking the oxycodone i needed to make the pain go away completely. It took about 60 mg to make it go away for about 8 hours. The main problem was when it wore off, I thought I was going to die from the strength of the stabbing pains that came back. I had about 8 hours of that till it calmed down to what is now "normal". The only thing This layman can figure out is that the body shut down the pain killing processes it normally carries on when the oxycodone was doing the job and when the oxy wore off the body had to start up its pain killing mechanism again. The only other explanation that makes sense but doesnt make sense is that the pain god was mad when I used the oxy and made it come back harder for a while to punish me. or do you have a different explanation? So talk at you next time in this ongoing narrative of the joys of shingles.

I am still going. Kind of like a old clock. The nerve pains are still reduced from what they before I got the nerve block. However, I think it is starting to wear off. I am feeling more pain, and more shooting pain. I have to use more of oxycodone. however, I recommend to anyone with this crap. I seem to get a significant relief from just working and exercising the area affected. Using the muscles and making them work, leads to a relief of the pain. The pain does come back, but at least you get relief from the pain for a while and get something accomplished rather than just sitting around. One of the biggest problems with this Illness is that Oxy is about the only thing that will kill the pain that you can get in pill form. The problem is the GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS are so screwed up that you have great difficulty getting your prescription. The Distributors are limited to 5000/month on any type of oxy pill...read each size pill is limited to 5000 per month that they then split up to their client pharmacies. So when the pharmacy runs out of their allocation that month, you are SOL . Sooooo when we have winter visitors here in sunny florida and they need to get their prescription, either they cant or if they do some resident cant. ISN'T THAT JUST LIKE GOVERNMENT. Leave it to government to FU any system. I know all the back story about the pill mills etc. BUT this ain't the answer by a long shot. I just hope and pray the a.Holes that wrote the bill and passed (I have just added at the end Their parents, wife, girlfriends and anyone who had anything to do with this so called fix) it come down with shingles just like mine and then they can experience first hand the FU system they created. I Just had to get that off my chest. If you want to hear more just ask and I will write another 10 pages on my opinion of them and what they created. So bye for another space of time till I return with new adventures.

Now that you mentioned it, I used a TENS unit on my neck and shoulders to relieve the tension. Here is a link to them or google it.

http://www.medicalproductsonline.org...FRQlgQodVKEG0w

Your working out and this tens unit basically accomplishes the same thing, except you can direct the focus of the unit exactly where you want the relief. I hope this helps....

Ok I decided to try acupuncture for the pain. DON'T DO IT. Before my first treatment I was to the point where I had not had to take a oxycodone for breakout pain for about a week. The evening after my first treatment( New Years day) I started hurting more. I thought it was just a slight reaction to the treatment. That night I woke out of a sound sleep (that is rare..the sleep) by a pain. I had to get up and take a half a pill.(about 5mg oxy). The next day I continued to have breakthrough pain. I was able to withstand taking the oxy till that night, this continued until tuesday when I had a second treatment. I had more pain after the treatment and that night I was jolted out of my sleep(lousy as it is) by a very strong pain, I had to take a full pill to quiet it down. I have been having the kind of pain I was having just before the nerve block treatment. I did not get the major pain that I had before the nerve block but the stabbing pains are almost as strong. I now have to take the oxy during the day when I can't stand it any more, quiet often now. I should NOT have had the acupuncture. I do NOT recommend it for shingles based on my experience. You may do better with it but don't say I told you to try it.

I am getting ready for another nerve block. That DAMM ACUPUNCTURE treatment really screwed me up. I don't know about other people and their experience with acupuncture but I will NEVER get another. I usually never say never anymore but I will have to be drugged and tied down to get another. I am now back to about 50 percent of what my pain problems were before the first nerve block. I was down to about 25 percent of original pain level till I had that DAMM ACUPUNCTURE treatment. You can guess from that, why I do not like acupuncture. Anyway, I have to stay off my blood thinner for about a week and get my INR down to 1.5 before the nerve block treatment. I get nervous about that part of it since I am prone to clots and There is a history of strokes in my family. It's kind of like playing Russian Roulette for me. I hope the gun has a thousand chambers and its 999 away from me.... Well I will post after the procedure and let you all know how it has done. I am curious who is reading this and why. I would appreciate either a post here or a PM, just to satisfy my curiosity. Thank you all who read this. I was wondering at first if it would inform or help anyone. I truly hope you have gotten your shingles shot so you don't get this.