New to Shingles

Posted by lraitt @lraitt, Jun 9 11:21pm

I've had Shingles for 3 weeks now, had I only known how painful it could be - I would have gotten the shot. Rash is getting lighter, but the pain.....my God, the pain. I'm on Gabapentin and take 2 Aleve twice a day; this helps me immensely, but until it kicks in in the morning, I'm in a lot of pain. I've read a lot about it, but am curious as to what others have experienced regarding the pain.
Thank you.

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yamevoy | @yamevoy | 6 days ago

I emphasize, as I had shingles in January. I had taken the first shingles shot that was produced, but did not get around to taking Shingrex, which was a later vaccine with a much better success rate.
I found that Tylenol helped more than Aleve. Gabapentin worked, but the side effects were so bad that I switched to something else.
Sometimes ice on the rash helped to ease the pain.
My doctor suggested capsaicin cream, but it didn’t help me.
I hope you feel better soon. It eventually will go away. Ask your doctor how long you have to wait after to get the Shingrix shot.

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