3rd round of shingles in the same year, 34 yo

Hi friends,

ive been really impressed with the amount of information that you all have to share in your posts and have also been feeling comforted with reading posts of those who have some similarities to me. so I decided to share my case. the first time I had shingles I thought I was losing my mind or dying. fortunately after I figured out what was going on I felt so relieved but also frightened that it must mean that there was something very seriously wrong with my immune system but my medical team assured me that this can happen to someone mostly healthy who is my age. as of yet, I have not found anything to be the cause of my shingles except for stress. when I am not having an outbreak I feel healthy and energized. after my second round, I was worried that again it must mean that there was something really wrong with me because my pcp did not even hint that this could ever happen again. in fact she had to look it up herself and said that from what she could tell the second round was just as likely as the first-good to know! but she said if I had a third round then we would know something was up and I would get referred to a specialist. now, with my third round I was starting to feel devastated, thinking that I must have cancer or something (a big fear of mine as someone who tends to be slightly hypervigilant of my health) but now, after reading case after case of recurrent shingles I feel much more confident. I think that now that I understand what I am dealing with a bit more I will really be able to pin point the very beginning of my symptoms before they progress much more because they seem to be following a pretty clear pattern at least in my case. the very first sign for me is a tickle in my throat, followed by the aches and nerve pain sensations, in my bones and nerves that makes me feel like i am starting to get a flu. the next stages involve headaches, nausea, and vertigo. then is the intense fatigue, chills, and waking up with numbness and tingling in my fingertips. if I think about it I start feeling fatigued from the very beginning but it is hard to notice right away. only after a while of these do I finally get some blisters. other symptoms that I'm not sure of if they are related is insomnia, which I've had each time but not sure if it's a chicken or an egg. itching in my ear and on my scalp, I have not had my ears or scalp checked to see if there are breakouts. heart palpitations which i have no idea of they are related at all or just a stress symptom. also the intense left sided gastrointestinal pain, which also involves at first loose bms and then constipation. I've looked into what it is like having the shingles internally a tiny bit but got confused about it and gave up on my research because from what i was reading most cases that were internal were not also external and it seems I was having both. right now, in my third round, after finding this forum, I feel a little more hopeful or at least I don't feel as alone. thank you all for sharing. let me know if you have any similarities. the only other thing I might add is that I was a kid that had chicken pox twice. and thinking back, I may have been having shingles my whole life since then because I can think of times where i have experienced most of these symptoms yet without ever having had the blisters until recently. the extreme vertigo stands out clearly as something I used to experience off and on without knowing why... Best of luck to you all on your healing journeys!

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