Severe itch after shingles on left forehead

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I am a 39 yo male who was diagnosed with shingles 3 weeks ago. I received a 7 day course of intravenous antivirals, and things seemed to get better. Intraocular involvement was excluded both during and after the hospital stay. After being discharged from hospital I was put on Paracetamol + Tilidine against the pain and a topical cream with Chlorhexidin and Dexpanthenol for the forehead area, to be applied twice daily.

After my pain symptoms gradually worsened last week (the pain became more of a cramping sensation around the eye), and the forehead and scalp became increasingly itchy, I have been back to the dermatologist and was put on Gabapentin, and another 5 day course of oral Valaciclovir. The general pain situation is somewhat improved now, but what remains, or even got slightly worse is the itching on the forehead and scalp. Is there anything one can do to help with that?

The other issue really affecting my quality of life at the moment is that reading or working on a screen, which are the two activities I spent most of the day with before the herpes zoster infection, is triggering nerve pains around the left eye. Is there anything that can be done about this? (wearing an eye patch while reading?)

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1 Reply

  • Posted

    Hi there, sorry to hear that. Itching can be related to PHN, do you know why they put you back on Antivirals after 3 weeks? was it due to itching?

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