I have shingles and am astounded at how painful it is. Anyone else?

I had shingles last October at first the pain was horrible but didn't realize it was shingles until the rash showed up on my right side .the nerve pain was bad ...I used calamine for the itching and shingles are contagious along with being painful nerves ..the calamine helped a lot and my doctor told me to use alpha lipiotic acid for the nerve pain..it helped me a lot I suffered for over 3 months with the nerve pain and the rash took close to a month to disappear after it dried up it is no longer contagious....they gave me gabapentin but I don't like the side affects so I used Tylenol and ibuprofen plus the alpha lipiotic acid..check with your doctor if you can use alpha lipiotic acid tho...I still have the nerve pain in my side at times..not sure if it ever goes away tho...the only way I could sleep was sitting in my lounge chair upright with a pillow behind me ..I'm sorry you are suffering from this it is a horrible nerve pain to deal with..prayers for healing soon for you 🙏

He's taken me off the pain killers I was using and given me something else to replace them. I am gradually coming to understand that I just have to sit this one out! Thanks for your concern.

This has been incredibly helpful. Thank you so much. I will definitely investigate alpha lipiotic acid.

Use Surivon for Shingles. That stuff is amazing. My daughter in law used it and it was instant relief for her

I think I was fortunate. I was concerned it would spread from my groin area but it was just on both sides. It was a large area. It was uncomfortable but Advil fixed me, thank god. I do think you can only ride this out. Not much else you can do. Like Covid , some just got the sniffles and others suffered severely. Tough to understand, feel better soon.

My experience back in March had me thinking I had a bad case of ear wax. Prior to that my vision was blurry a couple days but I didn't associate it with it. I'm thinking prodromal symptom now. I then got a one sided facial to chin on opposite side rash. Thought I was allergic to something. Couldn't see my doctor and ER is expensive so I went to an urgent care facility that Saturday. They said ear infection and rash and gave me ear drops and cream for rash. After about a week of pain I self referred to a dermatologist. They did lab work and that's when I got the shingles diagnosis. Thank God it wasn't IN my eye! But for someone who hasn't had so much as a pimple since age 14 (now 62) this was hard. I had scarring and dark spots that took a very long time to go away. It's been 5 months and they're much better now. It's a very painful and distressful diagnosis. I was given 400mg acyclovir and Tylenol which helped. I took the shot AFTER and due for the 2nd on October... I'm not sure I'll take it. I'm on low dose daily acyclovir now and haven't had any more issues... So far! Prayers to you!

Thanks, so glad you’re feeling better. I am now convinced there is no quick-fix for shingles—you just have to grin and bear it.

I know people who've had shingles in their eye and another in her ear. The person who had it in their eye recovered completely. The person who had it in their ear went deaf overnight and has never recovered their hearing. Someone of this group mentioned that they knew of a person who died as a result of shingles in their brain! Shingles is not the nice old uncle of ailments. It's the very devil.

Exactly!

Thanks for that. I live in South Africa and can't find it available online here. However, I now have a name and will keep exploring.