Upper abdominal pain has come back

Apparently it's shingles! :-/

I do have a few red spots just below my left breast which appeared a few days ago. Wasn't sure if they were connected or not, but showed them to the GP and he immediately said shingles. Apparently 'cos I left it a few days it was too late to prescribe me anything for shingles. The GP prescribed me some useless amitryptiline, which I probably won't take because even a low dose makes me unbearably groggy.

Still not entirely happy, just 'cos the stomach pain is so bad and I've had a lot of bloating and stuff. No fever as far as I know.

Anyone here had any experience with shingles? Seems like I can expect 3-4 more weeks of this ;_;

Clo - Thank you.

This is proper gash. Can't believe I looked up so much stuff on upper left abdominal pain and nothing mentioned shingles. I found this on medicine.net though:

Especially if you have never had an outbreak of shingles, it can be very difficult to identify the pain as coming from an attack of shingles. Depending on the location of the involved nerve, the pain may be mistaken for:

a headache,
appendicitis,
heart attack,
angina,
sciatica,
abdominal pain, or
other conditions.

I was doubtful at first, but now I think the GP has almost certainly got it right. Gah. I was dreading getting a cold this winter but a cold would have been 100x better than this.

Thanks ambling. I was wondering the same thing about the eye inflammation.

The pain deffo gets much worse at night for some reason. I took 30mg codeine about an hour ago, but it's still rather bad, so I'm gonna take some more codeine soon. I think I will take 10mg amitriptyline just before I go to bed as well. I hate the stuff but got nothing to do tomorrow, so if I'm a groggy zombie all day long it won't matter too much.

I'm seeing my surgeon on Wednesday, so maybe she will prescribe me some codeine if I ask. Some sleeping pills would be nice too but I'm not gonna push it :-/

How are you at any rate?

I took another 30mg codeine and the pain is still there. I have had worse pain than this (partial obstructions -_-), but yeah, I wouldn't wish this on you or anybody, scifigal.

NCOT, people are often rx'd Gabapentin for the nerve pain. The amitriptyline is also used off label to treat nerve pain. In all honesty, it would probably work quicker than Gabapentin. Your codeine will not have much effect on it unfortunately.

So sorry to read you have this going on. Take care.

I sure wouldn't have guessed shingles from your description. It the pain coming from the blisters and then traveling nerve pathways, or is the primary pain from the inside of your abdomen? I also wonder if you should have your eye re-examined with the special dye and light they use to look for shingles. Is your eye hurting now? And yeah, I don't know how much anti-viral medication would help your initial outbreak but I thought it would help prevent it from spreading. Maybe I'm wrong about that. At any rate, it took my friend who never complains about anything a couple of weeks before she could go back to work, so be patient with recovery. sorry you are going through this!

Hi folks.

Between the extra codeine and the amitriptyline I was finally able to get a decent night's sleep for what feels like the first time in weeks. Unfortunately I can't fully enjoy it 'cos of the amitriptyline and the pain (which is muffled, but still there), but at least the sedation isn't as bad as last time: I feel like I've been gently hit on the head with a chemical cosh as opposed to bashed on the head with a chemical cosh.

Gumby - The blisters weren't that painful at first. It hurt if I touched them and the general area felt numb sometimes. But the bulk of the pain was internal, like trapped gas under the ribcage dialled up to the max volume. It's intensely gnawing and radiates out to my back and upper left abdomen. The whole upper left has felt intensely tight and uncomfortable at times.

The shingles virus seems to have had either a direct or indirect effect on my intestines as well, hence the bloating, increased gas and urgency. I've googled it and found other people with shingles who have reported experiencing bloating, but there seems to be no officially recognised link between the two things - apparently docs just say to these people that their bloating isn't caused by the shingles. The only possible link that I have uncovered is that childhood chickenpox *may* cause adulthood IBS, 'cos apparently the virus is also locked away in the nerve cells of the gut. A bit more info about it here if anyone is interested:

www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2187918/Feel-bloated-It-chicken-pox-hidden-tum-childhood.html

As for my eyes, the uveitis came back several days ago but I think it was just coincidence, although I'm not sure of anything anymore :-/ At any rate I used the steroid drops I had left over from the last attack and it knocked it on the head within a few hours.

@BETTY SUE - No, those aren't symptoms! They are descriptions of what shingles pain can feel like. In my case I would add pancreatitis to the list <_<.

Anyway, thank you everyone.

NCOT,

Shingles.....would never have considered shingles. I have heard how awful they are though. And shingle vaccinations...hmmmm... Is that something you can take later and would it be any help? Or is it once shingles is there it can pop out at anytime?

Gosh, I have got to find out if I had chicken pox...

Hope you are feeling better...

Clo

I'm proper depressed at the moment. Life just gets worse and worse, and there isn't an antidepressant in the world which can overcome that.

Had an appointment with my surgeon today. Asked her about the TIES implant, a titanium implant which is meant to replace a conventional ileostomy. She hadn't heard of it but said she would never put an implant in somebody with Crohn's. I hadn't really thought the Crohn's would be such a big deal - after all, it can come back with a normal stoma. But yeah, she just about succeeding in convincing me it would be a terrible idea. And it was something I really, really wanted. So now I'm stuck with two equally rubbish choices: stay as I am or go back to a permanent ileostomy with all the stress and hassle that entails.

Secondly, I tried to get her to prescribe me some painkillers for my shingles, but she told me I need to go back to my GP surgery for that. Tried to tell her they were basically useless when it came to prescribing anything, but she was insistent.

So yeah. The depression has proper come back. Are there any good parts to life? I've forgotten. Seems to me it's just one BS struggle after another.

Thanks Clo.

I dunno how much longer I can go on like this for. I've been in excruciating pain for hours, which codeine didn't touch - all upper left pain, hard to describe, but stabbing and gnawing I'd say. Like something is chewing away at me from the inside out. Skin in that area ultra tender/sensitive too.

I got up at 8am and booked another online appointment with a GP today - my own one this time. It's now 9:30am, I've necked another load of paracetamol, codeine and, this time, ibuprofen. Drinking a cup of tea. Think the pain is very slowly getting better. Ever since this utter nonsense started, it's always been much worse at night and pretty easy to bear in the daytime.

I'm past the point of depression now. I'm hollow from tiredness, drugged up to the eyeballs (although I don't feel particularly sedated), and debilitated from pain.

I haven't tried the icy wrap yet, no. Gonna get myself to a pharmacy later and buy whatever stuff I can for pain.

@sparkleplenty - If it wasn't too late for the antiviral a few days ago I'm almost certain it's too late now =/ Will ask my GP about it anyway. Also, my next Entyvio infusion is on the 11th April, so just over a month away. Judging by last night I'm not gonna be ready to have it in a month :-/

It's 10am and a cup of tea and the pain meds have finally done their job - what a relief that is!

Scifigal - Thank you. And don't worry, I definitely will ask the GP about it. Earlier on, it was so bad (and also radiating around to the back) that I started wondering again if it could be pancreatitis. I suspect it is just the shingles, but yeah, I would like to hear it from a doctor that this level of pain for shingles is normal.

Oh dang! I hate when that happens. Can you send her a message? I hope the gabapentin works.