Shingles

What my dr. Thought I had was a cold sore. After it got worse I saw a dermatologist yesterday, and it turns out I have shingles. No fun at all! Wish I had gotten the vaccine a few months back during my physical, but can still get one once I get through this.

If you're on maintenance meds, particularly anti -tnf's, then you'll not likely be able to get the vaccine. You might be able to get the anti-virals though, which lessen the severity of shingles. I've heard that you can get shingles more than once, but i think it's extremely unlikely. If you are on meds, and being immunosuppressed, the symptoms from shingles can ge fairly severe. You might want to keep close contact with your Dr.

Thank you all. Things are looking much better. I just finished my five day prescription of anti viral pills and still have a few more to go on the hydrocortisone cream, which has made this much more comfortable. Shingles is nothing to mess around with. I had no idea you could get shingles on your face. And the pain is unbelievable.

Post Edited (ragbag) : 1/20/2020 3:02:39 PM (GMT-7)

Hello everyone - it's been a while since I was here. I'm glad you got treated right away with antiviral medication.

I too am trying to get over facial shingles (maxillary area of the trigeminal nerve) which started during the New Year holiday. One is supposed to get the antiviral drugs started within 72 hrs of onset for the drug to work best. Of course, by the time I figured out I had shingles and not some allergic reaction (it didn't all break out at the same time with blisters but initially just looked like a small rash near my eye) plus the holiday closures of doctor's offices, that time had kind of passed for me.

Anyway, I wound up spending 4 days in the hospital getting Acyclovir by infusion (along with much needed Demerol) because it turned into a severe case with eye involvement. It can cause blindness and I'm still not out of the woods concerning my eye. It was also in my mouth and nose, all on the left side. I was also quarantined in my room with everyone entering my room suited up with gowns, gloves and masks since it's contagious to those who haven't had chickenpox. Afterward, I spent 10 more days taking Valacyclovir and using steroid eyedrops.

I'm currently on 75mg of Lyrica 3x a day, which has helped the pain, but I'm practically a zombie. It is extremely painful and my face looks and feels like it has been burned. I have some paralysis from it as well. And it has really wiped me out.

For anyone that's immunosuppressed, viruses like shingles have to be taken very seriously. It sounds like what happened to @JaSanne was something similar to when my daughter had hand, foot and mouth disease. It became so incredibley severe. Also hospitalized, and got to the point where her body wasn't able to produce antibodies to the virus. They ended up taking her off of Imuran for a week or two as I recall to help her immune system going again.

I got shingles a few years ago. It occured in the upper left abdomen and at first I thought I had pancreatitis. Even when the blisters appeared I was still clueless. (To be fair, there weren't a lot of them and they didn't look like a rash to me.) Finally I got an urgent appointment with a GP, who immediately diagnosed shingles when he saw the blisters. But by then it was too late to start on any antiviral treatment because several days had passed since the symptoms started.

@JaSanne - That sounds hellish. I've always been a bit nervous of the shingles coming back and eye involvement particularly terrifies me. I hope you make a full recovery.

I've had shingles twice. I still get nerve pain once in a while.