Shingles Pain

Have you ever had shingles? Shingles pain can drive you crazy. The case I had was fairly mild. I looked at some of the pictures of people with shingles on the INTERNET, and "Wow!". I had it easy.

Shingles pain starts kind of like a tingling or burning sensation. At first it is vague. It sort of creeps up on you. Did you get a little sick first? Maybe a slight fever, and just unwell feeling? You know shingles is the same bug that causes chicken pox. After you get chicken pox as a kid and it goes away, the varicella zoster virus goes into hiding. It goes dormant. It seems to sleep in certain nerve cells along your spine.

Later, at a time when you least want it to, the virus wakes up. It travels along the nerve axons out to the surface of the skin and attacks. This usually happens to older people, and to people who have poor functioning immune systems. Like when you have cancer treatments, an organ transplant, HIV, or you are just worn out tired. Stress can also bring it on.

Anyway, back to the shingles pain. It is like fire. It burns, shoots electric bolts of fire through you, and for some people it itches like mad.

You know what I read somewhere? Those rash blisters, and red spots can be relieved by Preparation H. Yeah. Preparation H, the hemorrhoid ointment. Just dab it on each red spot. Works for kids with chicken pox too. Helps the kids stop scratching, and get to sleep. It's cheap. Worth a try.

The itching can ruin your life. I read an article about people who itched so bad they tore into their flesh. No medications worked for them. They couldn't sleep and scratched all day too. That happened in the healed over phase. The rash had disappeared, but the sensations and nerve irritation remained. This one woman had to wear a helmet to prevent her from scratching her forehead where the shingles rash had been. Every evening before bed, she put on her helmet, and mittens too. She did so much damage to her scalp that she needed a skin graft. Then she scratched the skin graft off. Yikes!

Shingles can show up on your back, side of your body, neck, legs, arms, and even on your forehead. It can infect your eyes, and damage your sight. It usually forms band looking areas, or stripes. That is because it is following nerve patterns from central spinal nerves out to the skin.

There are some various treatments now, and even prevention. The little virus is pretty tough, so most of the treatments just treat the symptoms like the pain, and itching. Some of the drugs that are used to treat other types of viruses, like HIV may help though. Shingles pain can be much more serious than you might think.