Shingles and Crohns--without my meds :( Kind of freaking out.

This Friday I developed what looked like contact dermatitis on my back. By today it was looking like shingles, and I had it confirmed by a doctor. I'm on Acyclovir for a week. And off of work, which I thought was kind of silly until the day went along and the pain got worse. I'm also employed by an outpatient hospital as a psychologist, so they have policies that I totally understand, even if I never touch my clients.

I contacted my GI doc and he instructed me to discontinue all my suppressors. I'm taking 100 mg MP-6, and Humira every ten days. While my Crohn's has been in remission since a resection in 2009, I have tons of extra-intestinal symptoms that the Humira manages: swelling, arthritis, pain, itchy skin,etc.

I'm really worried that without my medication I'm going to be in a lot of discomfort. I already take Vicodin to manage back pain, so I don't see them being eager to up the dose. And I can't go back on the meds until a doctor certifies that I'm fully healed, which could be a month or more.

The scariest thing is, while I was on the phone with the GI nurse, she offhandedly said "well, we can hope this won't lead to a flare..." I hadn't even considered it, but now I'm panicking a bit. I know the extra stress isn't going to do me any good. I'm doing some self-hypnosis to manage the pain and anxiety.

I'm also considering going on the specific carbohydrate diet or the autoimmune protocol to try to get my overall inflammation down. It was my plan to do so starting in August, but this is a real burst of motivation here.

Has anybody dealt with shingles? What was your experience, and how did you manage without your medication? Any advice would really help. I'm sure things will be manageable, but it was so hard to get in remission I can't imagine having to do it again.

I found a couple of older threads on here where posters on similar meds developed shingles:

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=2381137

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=17&m=1282451

And this Google search of Healingwell shows there are several more:
https://www.google.com/search?q=azathioprine+shingles&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=shingles+humira+site:www.healingwell.com

Unfortunately these meds (imuran, 6mp, humira, remicade, etc) do increase one's chances of developing shingles.

It's probably wise to stop the meds temporarily and to start the antiviral med.

Hopefully the shingles will go away in a couple of weeks. Work with your doctor and keep him/her update on how the shingles look.

I got shingles in March after just confirming I was flaring again. I took valtrex and think it really shortened the recovery time. After the first 4-5 days the pain was tolerable. I had to delay treatment, but my GI did put me on entocort to start managing symptoms. My GP told me they sometimes give pred for shingles so you might see if any of that is an option.

I had to wait until there was no sign of the outbreak or pain to start anything...and for me that was about 6-7 weeks.

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

I'm glad to hear you're working to get off of it. Have you tried epidural steroid injections for your back? Physical therapy? Is it a bulging/ruptured disc issue or something else?

I too have lower back problems and headaches. I have three ruptured discs in my lumbar spine. Some days it's mostly fine, other days I can't move. I've had three steroid injections. Two didn't do much of anything, one helped a lot but wore off after a few weeks and left me right back where I was. I did physical therapy for months and it just kept getting worse, not better. So I can sympathize with you there.

Do you find vicodin helps with your migraines? I get migraines occasionally, and vicodin does nothing for them. On the other hand I get *sinus* headaches frequently, and vicodin works wonders in knocking those out. But I try to take it only when I'm miserable with a sinus headache - maybe once or twice a month. For more moderate headaches, tylenol helps (though not as much, but enough to keep me functioning).