Can you have Shingles with a negative BLOOD TEST?
Posted , 7 users are following.
I am hoping I can get some thoughts on my condition. I was quite stressed about a month ago. About 13 days ago I woke up and had numbness on the right side of my face from the back of my cheek bone to the mid-point of my face. Thinking it was dental related I went to my dentist and he said my teeth are fine. The symptoms proceeded to get worse. In addition to numbness I started to feel warm/burning sensation on my cheek and the occastional feeling of pain. I have not had an injury to my face. The more disturbing symptoms started about 10 or 11 days ago when I started to have significant flu like symptoms (exhaustion, overall terrible feeling). I have also had an impact to the taste buds on the right side of my tongue and have experienced more sweating. But, I have no rash on my face.
Went to my primary care physician on day 7. He examined me and said I have all the signs of Shingles but no rash. He said that he would have a BLOOD TEST done to confirm that I had shingles. The blood test came back negative for shingles so he won't prescribe the antiviral medication because I don't have a rash. He made a referal to get an MRI and to see a neurologist because he thinks the facial issue and symptoms are not Shingles related.
Based on the reading I have been doing on this site it seems that my symptoms are very classic for the version of shingles that does not come with a rash. Also, given that I have only been experiencing any symptoms for 13 days I may still develop a rash.
Questions:
Is the Shingles BLOOD TEST reliable? Since blood was taken on day 8 does the test give false negatives? In addition, I had shingles about 18 years ago when i was 29 so can this impact the current test?
2 likes, 18 replies
tassyjean91 richard96162
Posted
do you have any updates in the past 5 days since you originally posted this? my facial shingles began with eye twitching and eventually the rash which made it obvious and don't even think I got a blood test. I do not know much about shingles with no rash but how has it progressed? I have heard that getting it twice is unlikely but I would be curious to know any information about that as well.