Shingles

i have the shingles. What a painful virus this is. I don't know how they can compare this to chicken pox. I don't remember muscle spasms with chicken pox. and this is so incredibly painful. They put me on famciclovir 500mg 3x's a day and hydrocodone for pain. So far it hasnt touched the pain or the spasms. Any ideas of what can help control the spasms? Right now I have a frozen bag of Peas where my stomach is spasiming but it hasn't started to help yet.


I had to laugh...When I was looking up the shingles it gave a list of people who are prone to get shingles. It was autoimmune disease, over 50, anitrejection drugs, chemotherapy, and experiencing stress. So I fell into all of those except the over 50.



Also, please say a prayer for my cat, Taz. He has a blockage from somthing he shouldnt have eatin and will have surgery in a few minutes. he has been there since yesterday morning and i miss him terribly. They will probably have to remove some of his intestines and will most likely be keeping him for a few days to make sure everything works properly.



They say things strikes in threes...So now I wait to find out what the 3rd thing is gonna be...

Hey Lynnwood, if I am remembering the correct name, I think they were going to put me on Valtrex but couldnt either because of my kidney problems or interations with my other meds. So this was the next choice or something that I would have to take 5 times a day.

I just got a call from the vet that Taz is out of surgery. They didnt find anything that was blocking him up. They did find extremly swollen lymph nodes so they did a biopsy to see exactly what it is. They said since he is only 11 months old its probably not cancer that its a bad virus but can't be sure till the biopsy is back!

Shingles!  Well, I got them so many times that the infectious disease specialist put me on preventative therapy, which is Acyclovir, a pill a day. Since I have started it, no more shingles. I sympathize with you, this is the most painful thing to deal with. I'm praying for your cat, I know how much my pets mean to me. Hope you feel better soon.

Ah, yes, Acyclovir -- close cousin to Valtrex! lol Hope it does its job quickly

I wouldn't pop them, they should start drying up on their own soon. Popping them just leaves them open to infection, when they dry by themselves they seem to heal faster.

Poor kitten. When mine was really ill, she would only eat from my hand, not anything else at all. I had to go into the back of the vet's to feed her 3x a day; she wouldn't let anyone even get her out of the cage. Hope Taz is much better soon.

my daughter got shingles from stress, she was 19.....she had a crappy job...they were on one side of her back, i never saw a kid in so much pain for something that looked like litle of nothing... ice helped her more than anything. when the ice was goen she cried. so we bought like 5 of those things lol. but that was the only thing that helped her. her hydro's 5's didnt do a thing...........made her drunk lol. i can lol now but i sure wasnt then.......good luck. and tg your kitty is gonna be ok...........

I had shingles in 1988 and have since felt residual pain on and off over the years, even though when i first had it the doctors said this wasn't possible. Now I'm feeling pain more and more often (I had it on my head and in and around my eye) and a rash begins to appear, then goes away. A few days ago I actually felt the pain on the other side of my head for the first time, and in the other eye. The concept of shingles being recurring is new to me, but my research has shown me it is not uncommon at all. My mother has lupus, as does my sister. Is shingles related to lupus? I never knew that, either, till I looked for this forum.

I'd appreciate any feedback, Have yet to see my doctor, but plan to go soon.

Hi headcase!!! The shingles iss more associated with our medicines than Lupus. I was told I got it because I went from Cytoxan to Cyclosporine to quickly and my immune system was too low. But that it is a risk for anyone taking immunosuppressants. I was in so much pain I could harldly breath from nerve pain and the blisters were just annoying pain but nothing compared to the nerve pain. If you had shingles on your face, you need to have been to your doctors by now. It is very dangerous on the face because of the risk of it getting into your eyes. Also, you need to treat it with antiviral meds. The pain you describe, I don't think that would be from shingles because mine was steady horrible pain for about 2-3 weeks and then slwoly let up. I feel just a little nerve pain off an on but its nothing compared to what it was. I could be wrong here, so someone please correct me that has reaccuring shingles...maybe the pop up and then go away rather quickly?

And Amy, I am much better, this was back in April and Taz is back to his normal sneaky self. Thank you so much for the thoughts and prayers!!!!

In my experience with shingles, prednisone is my culprit. I never had shingles until I started taking prednisone. It never fails, when my predinsone is increased the shingles pop up on my back and side. I now take Valtrex daily for prevention and it is working well, but sometimes I have to take extra when I'm on higher doses of pred.
Amy, I'm glad to hear you and Taz are both feeling better.

Babs