shingles?

was in the er sunday afternoon with terrible back pain (the right side of my lower back) and awful cramping on the right side of my abdomen. they ran a bunch of test thinking it was kidney stones - didn't find anything out, so they assumed i had pulled a muscle and sent me home with muscle relaxers. woke up yesterday morning with huge blistery things on my abdomen (the same place it had been cramping). went to see my pcp and he said that i have shingles! truth be told, i had no idea what it was - thought it was some strange disease only old people got. but, apparently it's a reoccurance of chicken pox that flares up affecting the nerves. the dr. didn't really have any idea what could have brought this on...have any of you ever had them? could it be related to all of the excess skin i have hanging around on my tummy? they have me on muscle relaxers, an anti-inflammatory, an anti-viral medication, and vicodin for pain. is there anything else that i could do to speed this along or to get some sort of relief? i am in so much pain - it hurts to sit, to lay, to move, and even to breathe... thanks, kym

I am certainly not a Doc, but, be careful with the anti-inflamatories they can stretch your pouch. (I have been told) I had shingles years ago & the antibiotics were pretty much the only thing that workd. (that was before surgury, so I am not sure what would work better at this point. I hae e-mailed my Doc & will let you no what he says on the subject when I hear from him. Marilyn, the Bearlady

I'm sorry to hear you've got the shingles. They are nasty. I had them years ago when my children had chicken pox. Pre surgery. They weren't fun and I had a mild case. Makes me nervous to be around people who have chicken pox. Aparently I had them as a child myself so even if you had chicken pox you can still get the shingles. My sister also had chicken pox many years ago and then recently she had the shingles. She also had a nasty case of them. I hate to tell you this but it didn't go away overnight. They bothered her for a few weeks. I believe that her doctor told her that she could get flare ups but its been over ayear and so far so good. I rmeember my mother haveing them a few years back too. I have no idea what totally makes someone get them other than sometimes people are prone to them and its suppose to be tied somehow into chicken pox. It is some kind of nasty virus. I hope you get better soon, good luck and god bless, pam

Stress fuels/ triggers the shingles, so whatever you can do to lighten your stress load should help. Delegate what you can to reduce your responsibilites. Shingles are not a fun thing, but will get better! Joy

Kym, I asked my Doc's about the shingles & this is what I got back from them. Hope it helps Hi Kym, I've treated shingles many times when I was doing Family Practice and one thing that helped was Neurontin, a nerve medicine. Typically, a 300mg tab on day 1, then twice a day on day 2, then three times a day on day 3 and everyday thereafter. I'm not sure if your PCP is comfortable giving you this, but it is indicated for shingles pain. Hope this helps. Brian E. Grace, PA-C, MSPAS Marilyn, the Bearlady

Hi Kym - I can sympathize in the deepest sense of the word. When I was 21 I came down with shingles and hurt so badly! At that time they gave me Zovirax which is what they use to treat chicken pox. Shingles are caused by the chicken pox virus which never leaves our system after we have had or carried them. It is a secondary form that is most commonly found during periods of high stress or other times when the body's immune system is deficient. In fact, when I was 21 it was so unusual to have them in such a young person that they test me for mono and HIV. Apparently shingles is one of the first infections a new HIV patient has. Fortunately they found that my case was purely caused by overwork. You do need to be careful and take time to rest and take care of yourself. While shingles are often short lived, even though painful, they can cause nerve damage. They travel along your nervous system and thus you will often only have them on half of your body and you may or may not have blisters that appear. If I remember correctly my symptoms began to ease up after about 4 or 5 days...I do know that I went to work on Monday morning and by noon couldn't sit up because of the pain. It was over Thanksgiving holiday and I was out of work for 2 weeks. The one thing I was warned about was that while the virus is active within you, you are contagious for chicken pox and should stay away from children who have not had chicken pox. Hope this helps. It will get better...I promise! Lissa