Postherpetic Neuralgia (Shingles) nerve damage

Hi, @nighthawk50 - welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You'll note I merged your post with this discussion, "Postherpetic Neuralgia (Shingles) nerve damage around eye, eyebrow, forehead & scalp" so that you could meet other members talking about postherpetic neuralgia.

I had postherpetic neuralgia after shingles myself, and it was tough. I remember wondering if the itching would ever go away.

Please meet @1977lizzy @joanlee @sjsmall5286 @oranbaughn, as well as @johnbishop. I trust these members will have some helpful input for you on postherpetic neuralgia and on the effectiveness of neural ablation for this condition.

Here is some Mayo Clinic information on postherpetic neuralgia that may be of interest: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/postherpetic-neuralgia/symptoms-causes/syc-20376588

Will you share a little of your story related to postherpetic neuralgia, @nighthawk50?

Hi @nighthawk50 - I would like to add my welcome to Connect along with @lisalucier and others. I have not had shingles myself but hopefully others will join in and offer some suggestions from personal experience. I did find a few interesting articles that may be helpful.

A new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology evaluates treatments for postherpetic neuralgia.
-- https://www.aan.com/PressRoom/home/PressRelease/231

Neural Ablation and Regeneration in Pain Practice
-- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4731549/

Hello, I had shingles around my right eye, forehead,eyebrow,eye and inside my head. I went on antivirals immediately and has 2 rounds of meds along with visits to the Opthomologist every other day, when my shingles went away it went straight to postneuraligia nerve pain. This all started Oct 28th and I still have nerve pain, shooting pain in my eye along with intense itching. Any suggestions? I’m in LYRICA 2x daily, I have a prescription gel it was a compound with lidocaine in it. I have shingles dermacare cream, shingles rescue and none of this works. I have scratched my face until it bled and pulled my hair out. I’m just made the 6 month mark with no relief.

I have same problem for 9 years!! Try Gabapentin 900 mg. One capsule morning; two at night. Compounded cream with Gabapentin + Lydocaine applied four times daily. I have used large frozen gel packs every night on that side of my face/scalp. Freezing cold helps. Also take stress rx. It requires an enormous attitude adjustment. I've explored neurosurgeries at major medical centers & won't go that route. I'm SO SORRY for anyone with post-herpetic neuralgia.

Hi , I just wanted to share a recent experience regarding my mother’s PHN and itching problem after Shingles in the eye, forehead area. Pain and itching subsided gradually over 4 months, but not completely. She is 88 years old. She tried Aloe Vera gel and within 3 days , both pain and itching have magically vanished.

Wow! What a blessing for your mother. I'll give it a try; my pain/itching has not gotten better in nine years but medications take the edge off.

I just wanted to add to this as I had facial shingles earlier this year and developed PHN and have burning, itching and pin prick pain at random intervals. I've found several solutions.
1. Capcaisin cream which contains chillies. This is a burning sensation at first and I use this for extreme times.
2. Tiger Balm. I use the white one but recently learned that they do a red one too. Not tried that but might be similar to the capsaicin cream.
3. Emla numbing cream. Mostly for the itching and non pain times.

All in all I'd say give tiger balm a try.

I have experienced this condition for the last three weeks and just found this site Here it is the fall of 2019 and no one seems to have found an answer to this condition. Evidently there are not enough of us that have the condition to make it worthwhile to research. It is comforting to know that others have experienced the situation.
I have found cold gel packs are about the only help. Gabapentin is still the Rx prescribed. At the age of 85 it looks like i will leave this world taking pain killers and of course "keep scratching".

@lynellb2 Hi I'm sorry for anyone that has shingles so far I have excapsed this but have you tried to use oatmeal soap it is very smoothing for the itch , I use to have to give patients an oatmeal bath that had this itching all the time. Now they have the soap and Aveeno has a lotion I think its Aveeno . Good luck

When I developed Adhesive Arachnoiditis I realized that I had horrible pain in the same places I had Shingles. I thought I would never have that kind of pain again but the pain of AA is much worse. My family dr said that a lot of his elderly patients like me get PHN pain again. AA is caused from spine surgeries and dyes but it’s strange that the pain follows the same route as my Shingles pain. I take Percocet to no avail. Had bad side effects to nerve meds.