Sharing my experience - recurring shingles

I'm a healthy 52 year old woman who runs regularly. I've had recurring shingles for the last 4 years or so which appears on my thumb, with pain all down my arm from my neck. I tend to get shingles between 6 months and a year apart when I've been stressed so not too bad, but worries me that the PHN might be getting worse. I understand that there's a new drug which has just been licensed in the UK for shingles - Zovorax? - but my GP is not aware of it. It's mentioned on the homepage of the shingles support website. Has anyone tried it? Or has anyone even been prescribed it on the NHS? Merck the manufacturers are apparently not providing sufficient quantities for UK use.

Sorry - it's not a new drug - it's a VACCINATION! Apparently it reduces instances of recurring shingles by over 50%1

Hi there eater out.

I have not heard of this vaccination here in the UK.

Zovirax cream is commonly used by people with cold sores on their lips.

Like I suggested in a previous post, you might like to try compound benzoic acid or Whitfield's ointment. If frugally applied to the infected area upon it's appearance, it dries up the infected area and within a few days the sores are gone, although some scarring will remain for a few weeks.

It has been a great help to me over the recent years.

Best wishes with this.

Hi,

See www.gponline.com/News/article/1143047/Shingles-vaccination-programme-launched-2013/

There are links from this article to more information if this helps.

Regards,

Alan

Thanks Alan. I too have found this kind of info online but to date my GP has not sent the follow-up letter she promised about prescribing on the NHS. I assume that this vaccination is being withheld due to austerity measures!

Hello I just wanted to say I have just been diagnosed with shingles for the first time and when I was at my doctors I got told by someone in the waitin room that they was receiving a shingles vaccination so I'm guessing the uk are doing it now seeing as that's were I live I think I may ask for it when I'm over this bout no way am I going through this again let yas know how I get on hope you all feel better soon x

I am so glad to have found this forum. I have lived with this doubt about the condition for so long and have been routinely shamed in the medical community. I had my first bout with shingles while on my honeymoon almost 20 years ago. We were out in the desert and I had to just go through it until we returned home. By then, the worst was over. It was the only time I have had it on my chest, but, it blistered terribly, was painful and itched all at once. Since then, I routinely have 6-10 episodes a year, but, it is usually confined to the base of my spine. Like many of you, I had many doctors who insisted it had to be an STD. But, I was quite sure it wasn't because not long before my marriage I had been tested for every STD under the sun while the docs were trying to figure out the cause of what turned out to be an allergic reaction to a medication. My husband had only had one sexual partner, his first wife, before our marriage and neither of them had an STD. I finally found a doctor who was educated enough to know that shingles can be recurring and that the virus hides at the base of the spine. She prescribed Valcyclovir which certainly helps shorten the course of the virus. She also suggested using Calamine lotion to dry out the blisters quickly and ameliorate the itching. After reading these posts, I'm going to see if benzoic acid is a help. I am older, but, was only 43 when this started. I live a very healthy ovo-lacto vegetarian lifestyle and am quite conscious about what I eat and what my overall nutrition is like. So, I don't think is the trigger. Stress could have been a factor in prior years, but, at the moment my life has very little of that. And still the episodes continue. Like all of you, I'm searching for answers. It's a little scary to think of getting old while dealing with this situation and I'm really hoping there will be new solutions and quickly! I'm open to whatever you have to say and any suggestions you might have.

Count Down.

My best wishes to you and the use of the Benzoic. I absolutely rely on using it.

I am a 46 year old female and have had recurring shingles on the back of my thigh for about 5 years. I know it's coming, from the nerve pain, and get a cluster of blisters about 1-2 inches across. I feel very tired in the days before the rash erupts. I find paracetemol some relief but I don't suffer as badly as some people.

I'm more susceptible if I'm run down or have been overdoing things.

The first doctor I saw told me it was infected insect bites but the second recognised it straight away and confirmed that it is not that unusual for it to recur. He said that I could have anti-viral medicine IF I went early enough...it's apparently not effective if taken once the spots appear. I've never bothered though.

Doctors simply have different experience so ask to see someone else if you're unsure.

Can I emphasise what another person said, that you should be very careful around pregnant women who have not had chickenpox. People with no immunity to chickenpox can catch it from contact with shingles virus and this can harm an unborn baby. It is passes on by direct contact, not airbourne.

It's been helpful to read other people's experiences, thank you.

hi, i would like to share my experience of using alternative medicine to deal with my recurring shingles. As a teenager, I had it for several years, used the prescribed medicines, and it kept coming back. Finally, I used a natural approach. I took very high potency vitamin c supplements (2-3g a day), ate lots of very healthy food including raw veg, and cut out sugar, white flour and unhealthy food for a few weeks, and did simple yoga and relxation exercises every day. I also took herbal echinacea tincture, and applied diluted tea-tree and lavender essential oils to the rash (in any base oil, but avocado/olive oil seem to work well). This was the last time I had shingles for nearly 20 years. Recently, during a really stressful period in my life, I felt the familiar pain and tingling, and immediately started back on the natural approach. the blisters never developed, and the pain was gone within a couple of days. I'm not a trained herbalist, so would have to recommend you consult one if you have shingles, but this approach has worked so well for me, and by letting my body tackle the virus itself rather than using anti-virals, I beleive I knocked it on the headm uch more permanently than the conventional way.

MAD1, I am going to try your natural approach and see if it helps. I had shingles for the first time last year. It was extremely painful. I got it shortly after I fell down tripping in the middle of the night on a baby gate. Here I am almost a year later and I went skiing a few weeks ago. I fell 2 times on some icy patches. The next day as I was driving home I felt itchy on my back. It thought nothing of it and thought it was dry skin. Today, I looked at my back and can see that familiar rash. I am scared to death that it's shingles. I am going to the Dr. in 2 hours. I also start a brand new job tomorrow. If it is Shingles, I hope it isn't as painful as it was last time because I will not be able to go to work.

My question is, does shingles appear after some physical trauma like falling down and hurting yourself? Last year, I hit my bad knee hard and maybe I triggered the nerves that carry the shingles. This year, I fell down on the ski slope. Did that trigger the shingles again??

About the vaccination, I got it last July. For 2 months it was bad, very very bad! Broke out in 17 places although most of them only about the size of a walnut. One of them was the size of a large hand and had infection trouble. Anyway, after the 2 months I have only had 2 very small outbreaks in 4 months. Not bad. The hard part for me is the PHN. (Post Herpetic Neuralgia) Over 20 years the nerve damage is extensive. I have been using all of the B vidas the L-lyacine , gabapentin etc. Most pain relief comes from essential oils in a nice bath. Love help anywhere I can get it. Have a happy marriage for 35 years. We love being grandparents. The hard part is when I can only see the babies play through a glass window for fear of giving them chickenpox.