Shingles Post your experiences, what helps what doesn't what is the best medical field for help?

[R.M.]

Wouldn't you know?

[HMFICDICK]

After seeing the neurologist I feel better as far as knowing what is going on. He made me realize that I am over the shingles.. Now I am dealing with the nerve damage it has done. This will go on for I don't know how long because it depends upon the bodies restorative ability. Obviously I am hoping for the best but who knows. Just after i started using 50 mg twice a day of lyrica, I wrote down the experience of a nights sleep.
Keep in mind this is when I just starting the lyrica and using pain pills(I hate pain pills, but when it hurts enough I give in).

My feelings and thoughts after a bad night:
When I close my eyes it is like I am floating in a pool of pain. With lumps of larger pain floating in it. When I try to find out what a pain is it slips way and I cant concentrate. On it. When I am up an about I concentrate on the task and do it. If I stop concentrating on a thing I fall asleep.
I just got up and walked around and realized that the lyrica does not stop the nerves from firing or relieve pain. It confuses it. The pain in my back from spine left toward hip is still there as a large blob of pain in the pool. When I walk around I can realize an concentrate on it to identify it. In the pool you cant tell where it is coming from and it is diluted by being in the pool with the other pains..
The pool is not necessarily just all pains. It may be that your other feelings ( your leg, a loved one, )are in the pool but you cant tell what the feeling in the pool may be, because in the pool you cant latch on to a feeling and feel it..
If this continues I would rather do without the lyrica. I tried masturbating and it did work and shut out all of the pain for a while. Now the other pains are coming back.
Even when I walk around the pains are there but the concentrating on walking or doing other things suppresses them so all you feel is the bigger pains or lumps as I have called them.
The problem with sleeping is that if you go to deep sleep you are ok but when you get back to lighter sleep you are in the pool, and that is not pleasant.
I am going to try to get some more sleep now, it is 4 am. Well I decided to walk around and that felt good. While the big pain in my back was still there is got better as I walked. I could think better. If this type of feelings continue, I think I would prefer hard drugs to the pain pool.
I am going to stay up for another half hour then go back to sleep. I will be working on the computer and see if that concentration helps............ I was able to concentrate and work on the computer looking thing up. It seems to depend upon how much concentration you place on what you want to think about. When you are sleeping you are not concentrating on anything in particular and the pain comes to the surface and crowds out any other thoughts.
Going to sleep now... at least try. Four thirty eight am. Ok its 530 and Im up. I must have slept but it sure didn’t seem like it. I still have pain in the back, Im taking two Tylenol. Oops 6am my alarm is going off. Must have fallen asleep. Back pain better.

After this night, I took the advice of a friend who takes lyrica. She said to take it on an empty stomach with a large cup of black coffee and then wait one hour before eating anything.

I tried it and it helps. It seems to give the lyrica a chance to work better. It reduced the pain substantially and I just had to take a pain pill to get the rest of the pain knocked down to a lower level.

After two days of taking lyrica the new way, Things are better, however, I am going to increase the dose to 75mg morn and nite.

Sunday morning, this is my second day of 75mg morn and nite and the pain in the back is almost to the point of not needing anything. Still have burning and sensitivity in my left leg. When I touch it or rub it ... it burns and makes smaller shooting pains into the groin and down the leg.... not nearly as bad as it was, and I can actually touch it without jumping. It is still sensitive to heat.... that is something I have forgotten to mention, the whole area is sensitive to heat... it makes it feel a burning sensation. But the lyrica has helped with that also.

As I am sitting here typing this I still get the shooting pains from back to front, but they are not nearly as bad as they were without medication. I will stay on the 75 mg for a few days to give it a chance to hopefully knock down more of the pain. I will be consulting with the doctor on monday and see if they want me to go to 100mg.

At this point using the black coffee method of taking the pills, I have not had the very tired feelings I had at the start of taking them. I think part of it is getting back to a semi normal state of not hurting constantly just makes you feel better and gives you a positive outlook on life. I hope this does someone some good.

Get your shingles shot.
HMFICDICK

[HMFICDICK]

I suppose you folks who read this figure it will never happen to me. I hope it doesn't. I would not wish this on anyone I know of. ( There are some people I would not feel sorry for if they got it, but I would not wish it on them. ) I went from 75mg of lyrica twice a day to 100, then to 125 starting today. When you go from one level to the next level you get very tired until your body gets used to it. It knocks down the pain fairly good to start with but as your body gets used to the higher level the pain also seems to adjust and you get the pain back, just at a little lower level than it was before the increase. Its like two steps forward and one back. I guess you have to get to the point where the body is still ok and the pain is gone, or at least at a lower level that you can put up with. At this point I still have three major areas of pain. The back, close to the spine which goes across the mid back towards the left side. Also, the leg from the hip down the side of the leg almost to the knee. The pain In my abdomen is only active when I eat. Then as the food passes through the left side of the intestines in the digestive process it gives me varying levels of pain. From sharp to dull. It helps you if you want to diet, because when it hurts when you eat and it starts to digest you loose your appetite. also I have a grinding (that is my best description i can come up with) pain in the back that is there almost constantly and varies in degree from none to 10 until I take a pain pill. The leg pain is a sharp stabbing pain, like someone shoved a pointed wood file into my leg. I can get along most of the day without a pain pill, but at night I can't sleep without it. Even with the pain pills at night I can't find a pain free position. I hope the increase will knock the pain down. In case you haven't gotten the message yet...... Get your shingles shot. Unless you really enjoy pain.

[HMFICDICK]

Well I am going to the doctor tomorrow for a checkup and the shingles. I have come up with a question that I really do not have a good answer for. I have always avoided pain pills... The strong narcotic type. Now I find myself needing them to function. I do not like to take any kind of narcotic pills but if I must, what is the proper or best way to use them. Should I take just enough to be able to stand the pain (still have pain but now I can just barely stand it)? Should I take enough so that I can the pain enough to do some of the things I used to do? Should I take enough so that I have no pain and can do all the things I used to do? It sounds like a silly problem, but I wonder what most people do for pain management? I know if i have a headache, I take enough that I no longer have a headache. Should I do the same with the other pains from shingles? Even though I am 70 I do not want to become addicted to anything. (being old is hard enough without adding another problem). I would like to hear from others on their philosophy regarding pain medications. I will get back to y'all after I see the doctor.

[HMFICDICK]

Here I am back again to tell you of the ongoing saga of shingles. This last week I started on a higher dosage of Lyrica. Lyrica is a truly great medication, Without it I would be poppingOxycontin like candy. I am now on 200mg twice a day. My first dose was friday night. After I took it I could not stay awake. It was like I had been up for 5 days straight and every time I blinked my eyes stayed shut. I tried to send a txt message of about five words. it took me about a half hour, I was falling asleep between each letter... like I said about every time I blinked. Finely I just went to bed. I woke up saturday morning feeling pretty good. It was then time for my next dose. I took it and prepared for the day. I was still having a little of the grinding pain so I took a half (10mg percocet) a pain pill. I was feeling halfway human. My wife and I went out garage sailing, one of our favorite pastimes. As the morning went on, I noticed I was feeling more and more like I had been having a few drinks.... getting high... of course I had not been drinking but by the time I got home at noon it sure felt like it. The feeling gradually subsided and went away. I talked to a friend and she said that has happened to her at times. weird. So I had noticed that while the lyrica had taken care of most of the pain, the stabbing pain and some of the grinding pain could only be handled by the pain pill. I don't need as much, but I still need it. I hate taking drugs like my pain pill. All my life I have avoided this kind of pain medication. I have had two shoulder and a hip replacement, along with six or eight Abdominal surgeries, and resisted the use of strong pain medications. Now I am finding that I must use them to maintain any standard of living. That is a hard thing to change. Anyway, back to the saga. Sunday, I decided I would not have any pain pills. Ok took my morning Lyrica and we went to church. It was harder for my wife to keep me awake during the sermon (her assistance is usually needed due to my natural proclivity to fall asleep unless the pastor has a realy rip snorting sermon) . On through the early afternoon, I would have liked a pain pill but NO I was trying to stop using the damm things. Later and later in the afternoon doing this and that, getting more and more tired. whenever I sat down I would fall asleep. Finely I had to take a pill. I found the pain although more diffuse kept on grinding on my nervous system and it got to the point that if I did not take a pain pill for the pain( Pain not as strong at each point, but more diffuse and constant on and on pain), my body was going to knock me out to relieve itself of the pain. I took a half pain pill and after it took effect I felt alert and awake. This is contrary to all my conceptions of the results of taking a pain pill. I expected to have to take a nap. I realized that even though the majority of the pain is blocked somehow by the lyrica, there is still some effect on the nervous system, and you need to use the pain pills to assist your body in the fight against pain. As I said this is all weird to me with my lifelong avoidance of pain pails. I guess it points out that when used for the proper medical problem the pain pills are a very good thing. As usual if you have any comments or questions add them to the string. If you want to PM me i don't mind HMFICDICK .

[tia travels]

Your shingles sure is lasting way longer than my Mom's did. Hers passed in about a month. You sure that medicine is helping it get better or just masking the pain?

[HMFICDICK]

Originally Posted by tia travels

Your shingles sure is lasting way longer than my Mom's did. Hers passed in about a month. You sure that medicine is helping it get better or just masking the pain?

Oh I believe it is definitely masking the pain. According to the doctors, it is up to my body to actually heal the shingles damage. Until it does, all they can do is help to live with the pain. Believe me, I would love to be free of the nerve damage that has been done to my body. It is a constant irritation to doing "anything". Unfortunately I am stuck with the nerve pain and pain medications. And worse, it may be the rest of my life. That Sucks! HMFICDICK

[HMFICDICK]

Well, so far it is helping and reducing the pain to a level that i can with the help of pain pills function fairly well. The longer I am using the lyrica the better it seems. Now don't think that this means that you feel like you did before you got shingles and all the fun associated with it up to the present with the lyrica and pain pills. I am beginning to wonder if I will ever feel "normal" again. Even though I can function, there is still that constant feeling of not normal. As you can see from my posts things are getting better but it takes a long time to get any change from the pain. My greatest fear about this whole thing is I will be on pain medications till the day I die. Yes I take other pills for various maladies but they don't give me a buzz feeling. That may sound good, till you realize you cant get back to normal without intense pain. To all who read this I pray you never have to go through this. Get your Shingles Shot! HMFICDICK

[chicagoboy]

Originally Posted by HMFICDICK

To all who read this I pray you never have to go through this. Get your Shingles Shot!

Yes, if you ever had chicken pox, get the shingles vaccine.

[HMFICDICK]

Another wonderful day with shingles nerve pain. Here is an alert to future sufferers. I was feeling like I would like a drink the other evening. ( I am now on 200mg of lyica morn and nite ) So Instead of getting a bottle of booze I bought a pack of hard cider (6%) alcohol. A friend of mine who takes lyrica has a hard cider or two every once in a while so it should be ok. Well, after the second can of cider, I felt horrible. I was in pain for the next 5 hours. It set off all the skin nerves and I felt like I was having electric shocks all over the area of shingles damage. I was concerned about taking a pain pill because the booze might make the pain pill too strong and give me even more problems. So I just held out till I figured it was safe to take a pain pill, and then got relief. Ok so I lived through that. I don't think I have told you about the joy of eating a meal. When I eat and swallow a bite of food, It goes down normally and all is ok till it starts its trip through the intestine and makes it way to the side affected by the shingles. Then I can feel pain as it works it's way through that side and then goes to the other side where i don't feel anything, then back to the affected side again. That is no fun at all. If I take a pain pill before i eat it reduces and sometimes eliminates the pain. Tonight I am having a intestine problem, not from food, just from some unknown cause, but it is multiplied by the nerve damage. So any illness that affects the area of nerve damage is magnified by the nerve damage. So, now will you get that shingles shot? Till the next report.

[HMFICDICK]

I was thinking about what I have to do about the pain problems.and my lifestyle ... Before June 2, 2015, My daily routine would be to get up 6am walk into the kitchen pour a large cup of coffee, put it into the microwave, then get a hard boiled egg and a cup of yogert out of the frig, along with a large glass of cranberry flavored drink, take it back to the bedroom to my computer desk and eat breakfast and read email ect..eventually get dressed go out and start working on numerous yard projects till, noon, eat lunch, work in yard or run errands, or whatever, till about 5 or 6 then clean up, have supper, watch tv or do other things till about midnight and go to bed.

Now, I wake up at 5am take my lyrica with a large cup of black coffee, then wait to see how much pain medication I need. Take a pain pill, then eat breakfast and rest from the exertion which has irritated the nerves that are affected by this illness and caused them to go crazy with lashingpain. After the excessive pain has subsided (I say excessive pain to give perspective, there is always some pain) I work on the computer (I forgot to say that I try to go as nude as possible with the area affected by the pain. The less things touching the affected area the better.). My activities are planned to do as little as possible that would cause movement of the affected area. This means I do very little active work. At noon I Try to eat a salad. Some days I can eat the whole salad, it depends upon how much the nerves in the abdomen are acting. Then I try to do a bit more activity and at 130pm I lay down for a nap to rest from all that exertion. I get up from my nap at about 430 and take my evening pills, have supper, and watch tv, falling asleep and sleeping through most of the programs and go to bed at midnight.

As you can see a considerably different lifestyle and I hate it. While writing this I think I fell asleep about 5 or six times and woke up with pages of single letters that I had to delete. I say again Get your shingles shot.

[HMFICDICK]

Well here I am Olllllld grandfather experience telling the youngins about shingles. I like to have some humor in a depressing subject. I have noticed that the lyrica and pain pills have decreased in effectiveness at times then increased. I do not know why, other than everything goes in cycles, I guess I do too. Anyway the lyrica seems to take care of a great deal of pain and I am thankful for it. The remaining pain is there and I just do not know what can be done for it (thats why I am going to see a pain doctor in september). When lyrica is working at best, I still have the burning sensation and at this time I still have the grinding stationary pain and also the occasional shooting pain. Sometimes Its bad and other times it is just every once in a while. AT best when the lyrica and pain pill is working really good. I have just a little grinding pain, kind of like you hurt a muscle and it is slowly healing and just hurts bad when you move wrong or hit it . Also, have the occasional shooting pain, but it is not as bad as usual. kind of like pulling a muscle but the pain only lasts a couple of seconds. Then there is the long pulled muscle pain that lasts for about a half a minute, it starts out weak and gets stronger and stronger till it peaks then weakens down to nothing.. Dosent that sound like fun??.. And that is when it is getting better than it is at its peak at the start of all this....Anyway the last thing I will tell you about this time is the buring sensation and the electrical discharge. The burning sensation I think comes from the nerves you have at the surface of your skin and normally tell you when something is touching you, except now it gives you a strong burning sensation rather than a feeling of something touching you. If i accidently brush my hand against my thigh i get a burning sensation. If i intentionally touch my thigh I do not get that sensation. it is the natural nerve job of letting you know that something is touching you, and when you intentionally touch yourself you do not get the sensation because you expect it. Its kind of like it is very difficult to tickle yourself. try it. The other sensation is the electrical discharge. when i grab a area on my abdomen and move it, the action generates what I can only describe as an electrical discharge that travels across the abdomen and to the thigh. If you have ever seen a electrical discharge in the clouds where it starts out as one shaft and seperates into a hundred little ones spreading across the cloud. That is what it feels like. yes it hurts. I wonder if anyone is being helped by all this stuff I am writing. I will keep on Until I am cured or die...God willing. in the hopes that I can help one person to keep from getting this curse or if ya got it what my experience has been so you know you are not alone. HMFICDICK. Get ;your shingles shot

[HMFICDICK]

Well I went to my neurologist today and got more bad news. I very likely will have this wonderful crap for another year and a half at least. That is the prognosis of my illness that has lasted this long. It started as I have said on June 2, 2015, and I started reporting it on it. Anyway, I have started increasing my lyrica to 225 mg for a few days morn and evening and then I go to 250mg morn and evening. I hope I don't have too many nightmares from it. I celebrated this afternoon with a few drinks which I should not have but I'm having circulating pains in my shingles area and it gets me anyway. So I will live through it. Most of the time I get about 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night. I take a pain pill and get to sleep and I get woken up by a burning pain in my hip. It is the nerve giving me a general pain in the hip area and I then will take my lyrica in the morning and start my day. I am starting to do a few more things outside and inside. I don't have the muscle atrophy that I expected. I am able to do the physical things I used to do without being winded or aching.... of course how would I even know ha ha. But the point is the prolonged reduction in activity has not affected my physical abilities. I am pleasantly surprised by this. Perhaps I can try other "Physical activities" some time. So as that good old liberal news talking head Walter Cronkite used to say "And That's The Way It Is, Today, September 3rd , 2015. HMIFCDICK.Walter did not know it but he created a conservative Monster.

[HMFICDICK]

When we saw our hero last he was hanging on by a single nerve, taking life one pain pill at a time. Well still alive, Since I wrote last I have increased to 250mg Morn and 250mg nite on lyrica, and pain pills as needed. I thought the next time I wrote I would not be taking hardly any pain pills. SURPRISE, when the main pain diminished, which it did, the subsidiary pain didn't . The burning pain on my skin got worse(either it got worse or I noticed it more?????) . Also, the normal actions of the intestines in moving food around hurts. When I swallow food, about a minute later I have a pain in my abdomen for about 15 seconds. Then it goes away and when I take another bite it happens again. As the day progresses after the meal I get sharp pains in the gut as the muscles do their normal job of moving the food through the intestine. It appears that in my body the last section of the intestine connected to the anus is on the left side, so when I have to go, sometimes I really cant feel it until it really gets strong...I forgot to mention the shingles has made the intestine or the nerves along it a bit numb so other than the movement of the food I don't feel things. This makes fart control very difficult. Back to the burning skin.... wearing clothes makes my skin hurt constantly until I take them off. All I know is that I am so happy to get home and take all my clothes off.....yep ALL. Well, I can leave my compression stockings on my lower legs(fortunately they were never involved with the shingles). If I ever got to go see a hooker I would feel as good taking my clothes off as anything else. FYI, yes the shingles damage has affected my penus as well as everthing else in the lower, left quadrent of the body. If you are wondering just what that includes, just take a straight line down from the belly button, to the tip of the penus(yes right down the middle), from the waist to just above the left knee, then in an arc from the bottom of the groin to just above the middle front and back of the left knee. Also, I have learned the hard way, do not drink alcohol with the lyrica. Two standard shots, will do you in and then make you feel terrible afterwards. Now does it affect sex. yep. The lyrica affects nerves, what the lyrica dosen't kill the pain pills finish off. I have tried all the diffierent pills to no avail. So, that comes down to Cant Drink, Cant Smoke, Cant sex, what is the point?.. Anyway, If that isn't enough Tuesday morning...Monday night ~~~~ whatever I am woken up from one of my rare times sleeping with a throbbing pain from a nerve I have never had hurt before. It is in the affected area but it never did anything before, but it is just spazaming the hell out of my leg and hurting at the same time. I had to take a whole pill to get it down to feeling just terrible. I get to see the doctor Friday afternoon and see if he has come up with a miracle cure. If I get cured I will write it here for everyone to see. Till then If my telling you about all of the crap I have gone through with shingles has not convinced you to get a shingles shot you are crazy and deserve what ever you get. If you have any questions on anything that I have said or not said feel free to PM me or Post a question if you like.

[Carlos Danger]

I mean longwinded homie goin off, whew!