What can you tell me about shingles if you have had them?!


Question: "Pure Pain." Shingles are caused by a left-over chickenpox virus that has lain dormant for years. When something, somehow wakes that virus up, it can't go its normal route as one is now immune to it, so it turns inward and attacks the nerves, causing all kinds of pain.


Answers: "Pure Pain." Shingles are caused by a left-over chickenpox virus that has lain dormant for years. When something, somehow wakes that virus up, it can't go its normal route as one is now immune to it, so it turns inward and attacks the nerves, causing all kinds of pain.

They hurt very bad happen typicaly on one side of the body and look like a red raised rash. There is nothing you can do for them but control the pain. You have to have had chicken-pox to get them the other name is herpes zoster. Anything else i can tell you?

I've never had them but my sister has. Its a form of chicken pox. Highly contagious. She had red dots like a rash all over her chest and stomach and it was really itchy.

I had shingles on the back of my shoulder and middle upper back when I was about 14. It was the most excruciating thing I have ever been through. It itched like I would go insane if I did not scratch it. But scratching it sent pain radiating. I've seen pictures of other people who have had them and mine did not look as bad as those so I'm not even sure my case was as extreme as it felt. The doctors put me on codeine to deal with the pain and I basically lost two days of my life. My mom said that during those two days of semi consciousness I was hallucinating about flies being all over my body. She eventually just covered me with a thin sheet to keep me from screaming about flies. The cream that had to be put on the patches made them itch like mad. Even air swooshing over my back made them itch. Like I said, it was horrible and I hope I never have to go through it again.

People who get shingles have had chicken pox at some point in their lives. After that the virus lays dormant in the spine. Then, later in life, when a person has stress or their immune system is compromised for some reason, the chicken pox reappears in the form of shingles. Shingles is an angry looking inflammation on the skin that follows a nerve. They will be just on one side of the body and go from mid-line front to mid-line back. Or, some get shingles in their eyes, which is very painful. Shingles can be treated with a spray that has lidocaine in it, I believe.

I was sick in Nov from shingles. They start out with the area being sore and normally you always break out in the same place. The skin gets sore and then you get blisters and the area will swell. The blisters will break and a scab will form. The pain is terrible and lasts for quite some time and the pain can continue even after the shingles clears up. There is medication that will help. I used the Zovirax cream and took medication for the pain.

its very contagiuous.. try www.webmed.com good luck!!!

I understand that shingles are like the chicken pox, only worse. I never had them, but my mom did when she was a girl. And she had to stay in the house while everyone was out having fun.
And it is contagious.

The source below discusses this skin problem.





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