- #1
rhody
Gold Member
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Just when you thought I could breathe a sigh of relief and was feeling good for a couple of weeks, Blam, shingles, son of a ...
A quick call to my brother in law who is about ten years younger than me confirmed the symptoms. He said the best advice is to get on an antibiotic as quickly as possible to keep the spread of the virus from advancing along other nerves. It was weird too because the last few days I have been having pain above the area where my kidney stone was removed. I thought it was another one. I am glad it wasn't but this is no fun either. I have a call into my Dr now, hopefully he will trust my symptom description, and I can get the antibiotic no later than tomorrow. My brother in law waited over a week and he got a pretty bad case and has had tingling and discomfort from time to time since then, it comes and goes. My personal belief is that stress can bring it on, but I have no absolute proof, but recent bout with kidney stones and recent work stress certainly didn't help the situation.
Funny I was feeling especially upbeat health wise, and will try to continue that feeling despite this. The Dr just called and is calling in the prescription now, so I won't have to wait until tomorrow, that is a good thing.
Rhody...
P.S. I just had a thirty minute sneezing fit, until I remembered that old trick I learned awhile ago, grab your lower lip squeeze and shake, I did it for about five minutes and it worked, then the urge to sneeze returned, more squeezing and shaking and now it has subsided. Took a couple of benadryl too to address the itching.
But more than half, and perhaps as many as 75 percent, of shingles patients beyond age 60 develop a condition called postherpetic neuralgia (PHN)-excruciating pain that persists long after the viral infection is over.
A Drama in Two Acts
Because shingles may start with nonspecific signs and symptoms, it can mimic conditions ranging from muscle strain to heart attack. The most common initial complaint is burning or shooting pain in the area served by the nerves infected by VZV, usually near the waist or on the head and face. Patients describe the pain as pulsating, stabbing, piercing, unbearable, and some experts have described it as second only to the pain produced by certain forms of cancer. (Some shingles victims have severe itching or aching rather than pain, and a blessed few, chiefly young patients, experience no discomfort at all.)
Within a couple of days, the pain or discomfort is accompanied by a rash--small, clear blisters (lesions) that form on inflamed skin in the painful area. New blisters continue to appear for about seven days. They gradually get larger, become cloudy, and form crusts that fall off with little or no scarring. The whole episode of pain, rash and healing is generally over in three to five weeks.
After VZV has entered the body and caused chickenpox, it doesn't go away, even after the patient recovers. Instead, the virus takes up residence in nerve cells next to the spinal cord and cranial nerves. Years later, for reasons that scientists don't fully understand, VZV again becomes active. It infects nerve fibers to their very ends, causing them to send impulses that the brain interprets as severe pain, burning or itching.
A quick call to my brother in law who is about ten years younger than me confirmed the symptoms. He said the best advice is to get on an antibiotic as quickly as possible to keep the spread of the virus from advancing along other nerves. It was weird too because the last few days I have been having pain above the area where my kidney stone was removed. I thought it was another one. I am glad it wasn't but this is no fun either. I have a call into my Dr now, hopefully he will trust my symptom description, and I can get the antibiotic no later than tomorrow. My brother in law waited over a week and he got a pretty bad case and has had tingling and discomfort from time to time since then, it comes and goes. My personal belief is that stress can bring it on, but I have no absolute proof, but recent bout with kidney stones and recent work stress certainly didn't help the situation.
Funny I was feeling especially upbeat health wise, and will try to continue that feeling despite this. The Dr just called and is calling in the prescription now, so I won't have to wait until tomorrow, that is a good thing.
Rhody...
P.S. I just had a thirty minute sneezing fit, until I remembered that old trick I learned awhile ago, grab your lower lip squeeze and shake, I did it for about five minutes and it worked, then the urge to sneeze returned, more squeezing and shaking and now it has subsided. Took a couple of benadryl too to address the itching.