Does that ever go away!!!!!

Dear Heather,  I feel for you.  Take care of yourself - that is most important.  It is a very bad situation, but yes, you will get over it.  You should have been put on anti-viral medications early on - that would have helped you.  Once you are healed, see if you can get the shingles vaccination.  (I have had shingles twice.)  Maybe you need to go back to the doctor.  I wish you the best and hopefully you have a support group around you to help you - with both the physical and emotional tole this takes on a person.  I'll keep you in my thoughts.  

 

That's the million dollar question. Are you also on something like Gabapentin (Neurontin) or Lyrica? Those can block the nerve pain signals and help quite a bit, along with pain creams with Lidocaine. Your drug is meant to be strictly for pain and may or may not work well on nerve pain.  Also, try to avoid anything that increases the pain. Honestly. The longer you can feel pain-free-ish, the better it is for the nerves, your mood and your recovery. I KNOW that's not possible, but try and adjust certain activities if you can. Also talk to your doctor about adjusting the meds or as I said, adding to them. Not all doctors are familiar wtih treating shingles.

The next part is about it going away. Usually, at about the 8 week mark most people are much better, or it's even cleared up. If you're not, you may be getting into the PHN situation. That's Post Herpetic Neuralgia, which means that after the main shingles out-break, the nerves have some degree of damage. How much the pain improves or can go away varies. I'm much better than I was previously, but I'm 9 months out from my shingles. The improvement and pain decrease at this phase is slight and slow, but there IS an improvement. I hope you do not have PHN. I'll be honest, it's very upsetting to realize you do--I was in denial for a while, then suddenly realized it after 3 months (yeah, denial is a pretty strong thing).

If you wish, look up more about PHN, but try not to get too discouraged. There's a WIDE range of pain levels and recoveries. I had two friends that had it, but at about 12-13 months had almost totally recovered. Others have quite a high level of pain for a long time.

No matter what, learning how to deal with the pain, how to refocus and adjust to this situation will make a big difference in your outlook. It's not all sunshine and balloons, believe me, I know but there is help. Try looking at the thread in PHN titled "PHN with Depression?" There's a lot of good info there from Charlie.

You have a lot of very good points in your message.  The most important, I believe, is to take care of yourself as best as you can.  Get rest - that usually means giving up some things, for the time being.  

Hi Heather,

I feel much the same as you do. I got shingles Nov 2016. Now, after the rash has long gonve, my pain has settled in my left upper shoulder, under my left arm and on top of my left breast. After my shingles went away, I developed PHN. Like Babs, I was in denial about having chronic nerve pain, but slowly came to accept it. But, I have discovered that my nerve pain changes. Sometimes, it is very bad and sometimes it seems much better.

I am certainly better, overall, than I was six months ago. So, slowly my energy is coming back and my pain is very slowly decreasing. But, as I said, somedays my pain seems worse than others. The main thing that makes my shingles pain worse is STRESS and ANXIETY. Ironically, those are two side effects of shingles. So, be alert to trying to stop your stress and anxiety and get a lot rest and sleep--these are the best weapons to fight shingles nerve pain. Good luck to you and all of us in our struggle to regain our lives and lessen our nerve pain! 

Hi Heather29740.I'm starting to see the end of the pain after 3 months..I've started to reduce the Pregabelin and the Tramadol,both of which made me quite woozy.I'm doing it very slowly though because,one always should reduce slowly and I can always go back up if I need to.I'm sleeping a lot- and feel better every time I wake after a long one.Previously,pain would either keep me awake or wake me up.)i had shingles all around my left side from spine to breast front.It had me whimpering many times.It's so easy to take more than one should.The Pregabalin has been a lifesaver and I think I'm over the worst of it.L-Lysine has helped gréatly,but I have to chew them,as they're so big.X Beth

Had a worst case version of this terrible disease.  Someone was kind enough to get me a copy of Alan Novarc's book on shingles.  Significant improvement after about 2 days.  My question is: why didn't my doctor have these answers?

Dear Heather, Sorry to hear of the pain you have endured. Post neuralgia pain isn't fun. I see someone has already recommended you go back to the dr and he could possibly put you on Gabapentin or Lyrica. These meds may help somewhat with the pain, but please be careful of the side effects. I don't know your age, but they can make you unbalanced and put you at a fall risk and also make you forgetful. Taking a low dose of amitriptyline could possibly help with pain and depression. I wish you the best.