Shingles

[8L4YN3]

Hey all %) Hope life is treating everyone well and what not.

I'm just wondering if anyone has had shingles before? Surely some of you have had it before, i'm just curious about some of your stories and how things turned out for you.

One morning i woke up to a weird pain in my spine, it was a sharp, kinda itchy, but a painful uncomfortable stabbing pain in spine, that ran around my rib to the front, and the skin felt abit weird but not painful.

This pain kept getting worse and a tiny rash had developed on me front and back, i didn't know that back one was there, so i assumed the front one to be some kind of spider bite, ignored it, and the back pain got worse, i knew it obviously wasnt a pulled muscle so i went to the doctors, only to be told i had shingles. Now i didn't know what it even was, or that it existed for that matter(cant be assed explaining it, research for yourselves).

Fast foward a few days, ive got nerve pain running down my back and ribs, my rashes are huge and on my back and front/side making sleeping hard, all my skin is sensitive to touch and skin on skin contact hurts, tshirts hurt on it.

Doctor has scripted me panadeine forte, which contains 60mg of codeine (and 500mg acetaminophen/paracetamol), 2 of these does nothing to the pain, 3 does nothing, cwe'ing 8 of them, 240mg gives me some releif(and gets me stoned but i dont care for recreational use at this time, i just dont want to be in pain). But my pills last not very long, so monday i'm forced to go to another doctor to hopeforly get some tramadol or endone(oxycodone).

But yeah the point of this thread is just to see how other people have went with shingles and what not.

Thanks

 

[debaser]

Hi, for shingles you can get prescribed low doses of tricyclic antidepressants, which work for nerve pain too.

 

[8L4YN3]

I'm not really keen on tricyclic antidepressants, although if they work that'd be great, i just can't see them working better than opiates, and opiates deal with some of the mental anguish im going through due to this bullshit as well.

 

[addictivepersona]

I don't know if it was truly shingles, but I matched most of the symptoms I found from websites, and my rash looked similar to most of the images I found online. I wasn't able to see a doctor since I don't have good health insurance. I battled it (and am battling it) with Vit. C. in the form of some mandarins, and Nutritional Yeast (chock full of Vit. B12).

I read online that the outbreak typically goes away on its own within two weeks. I am at the two week mark. The bumps are still there but have healed. They still itch, but only when touched. Thankfully they are no longer painful.

I've heard antihistamines work well for helping stop the itch.

As far as where it was located, it was on my right side, a few inches below breast-level. Well, that was the main rash area. A few bumps spread to my bra line (again, right side), and some went past my belly button the left side of my stomach. Oddly enough, an old scar has started itching like all hell and has become red and more visible.

Let me know if you want more info. Sorry if this was too much. Best of luck with your recovery!