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ANA positive then negative then positive...

Autoimmune Diseases | Last Active: Jul 24, 2023 | Replies (53)

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@dlydailyhope

@oakwoman, good luck at the dermatologist tomorrow.

I read on Medical News Today that some potential complications of shingles include:

hearing problems (I have had hearing loss in one ear)
vision problems (I have blurry vision at times)
brain inflammation (I have many headaches)
pneumonia (haven't had this)
postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) (definitely have this)

Contacting the right shingles specialist can help improve recovery time and reduce the risk of long-term complications. You definitely want to prevent infection of the sores on your foot which could further complicate things.

I have experienced nerve pain for many years, and know how painful it can be (spinal stenosis, shooting nerve pain down back/legs/feet, shingles on face, etc.). There are medications, like valacyclovir, that can help relieve some of the shingles nerve pain (may take for some time and then as needed for flares). There are also anti-anxiety/depression medications that can help with nerve/chronic pain (I have been taking Cymbalta/duloxetine for over 2 years and it did help). Chronic pain can really impact your mental health.

It seems like despite getting the shingles vaccine, your body reacted to Nucala (even if you stopped taking it) and if you had chicken pox in the past, the virus reactivated to cause you shingles. I didn't get the shingles vaccine but had chicken pox as a kid. When I was prescribed prednisone back in 2015 due to mysterious eye/lip swelling, I stopped taking it after 2 days due to extreme fatigue/weakness symptoms only to have my body attack itself and extremely painful blisters/sores erupted on my face and I lost a big patch of hair (my hair dresser told me several weeks later it was like a quarter size totally bald on back of head...alopecia areata...would have never known if he didn't tell me). Thyroid levels were normal at the time. The starting and abrupt stopping of prednisone (which I never took before) really awakened the shingles virus and autoimmune symptoms and have had many problems since. Not sure if Nucala did this to you.

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Replies to "@oakwoman, good luck at the dermatologist tomorrow. I read on Medical News Today that some potential..."

All that you described was most familiar to my condition. I was not diagnosed with shingles at all by any of the doctors I've seen. With all that I have read I believe the shingles shot along with nucala triggered the response that I am getting in my skin. The descriptions of PHN and shingles in general are exactly what happened to me. I also read that people who took the shingles shot should not have taken nucala!! So too bad my doctor didn't do his research. Then I would not have gotten the shingles shot before I started nucala.
Now I have to figure out all of this on my own. I thank you for the information in your post. It made me feel so much better knowing WHAT the pain is all about. It gave me some hope. I had not heard of PHN before and now at least I have a reference to take to the dermatologist tomorrow. God bless