I thought I would update everyone. I am feeling a little better. I still feel awful but am feeling slightly less awful. I am itching like crazy and my doctor has called me in some vistaril to help. I am ridiculously excited about the vistaril. It feels like I am going to receive the best gift ever (if it helps with the itching, but I've read that it really does). I actually feel like a kid on Christmas Eve, so excited because I know Santa is bringing me something great! Also, I ordered myself some perfume, which I haven't bought for myself in many years. I smelled it in a magazine and ordered it for myself (after much contemplation)! I may have a slight steroid high from the extra prednisone I am taking to help fight the shingles, but I don't care, I'll take the feeling better wherever I can get it! Anyway, I know I sound slightly crazy, but I wanted to update everyone while I was feeling better for once.

google organo coffee and teas. they are suppose to straighten out the alkalines in your body. maybe this product would give your body a chance to recovery and reverse the break outs? worth a try. it has already helping my girl friends daughter with her nerve issues after seriousaccident. annnnd i am trying them too to help with my atn and left over ramsey hunt pain from shingles and bellls palsy.
blessings for you to recovery
hugs

Glad you are feeling better

How does it feel now?

I was just diagnosed with chronic shingles.

The jaw bone, the ear, and the cheek...affects my ability to eat.

Hope you are doing much better now!

I still have them, but they seem to be mostly going away. I'm on a constant dose of acyclovir and my Dad bought me some Emuaid cream, which seems to help too. I'll be very happy when I can refer to having had shingles in the past tense. I appreciate the concern!

i also read where taking tagament over the counter stomach medication will lessen the severity and the duration. google tagament treatment for shingles. worth a shot, if i would of known about this when i had a horrible bout of these i would of taken it. i am also getting the shingles booster vaccine since looks like our immunity has worn off since having chicken pox. ask your dr when you could get it.
hugs blessings for speedy recovery

Hi:

Please keep in mind that your diet will have a profound impact on your bodies ability to fight this thing. I highly recommend lots of freshly squeezed vegetable juices, (carrot, kale, ginger), lots of fresh raw salads, cut way back on meat and dairy, greasy foods, fast foods, ice cream, potato chips, etc. . Eat lots of raw almonds and walnuts, organic hi omega eggs, take fish oil supplements - 800mg of EPA/DHA omega 3, which helps the cells, and skin to heal.

Without the nutritional foundation shingles will be much much more difficult to tackle.

If you are able to make proper dietary changes, and stick to them for 8 weeks, please let us know the outcomes, but be sure to let us know how closely you maintained a healthy diet.

twyliah,

I forgot to mention you should also be taking a hi quality
vitamin C, at least 3 grams a day, and a hi quality B vitamin.

Try to take a real whole foods based vitamin since they are much better absorbed and used by the cells of your body. Research is clear about this. Mega Foods makes a good selection of vitamins that are real foods and so does Innate Response.

Cheers,
Martin

have you tried taking over the counter tagament? google tagament and shingles. it is suppose to help with duration and severity. worth a shot. mayo clinic had an article about this about a while back.

I too will also be happy when I can talk of shingles in the past tense, the itching is driving me mad and I now have bletharitis in my right eye as a result of the shingles, my hair looks like it's been dipped in chip oil because of the cream to help ease the itching, I have a few days when I feel better and then I seem to do down hill again, it's a miserable and I can understand when you say you feel slightly less awful as that's how I feel, on my good days I feel ok but i'm still a million miles away from being 100%, i'm working on positive thoughts now as I refuse to let this beat me
Take Care
Ali

So glad that you are feeling a bit better; every day that has some improvement is a blessing...can I ask what you are taking for the pain and itch as I am now in my 12th month and nothing is working...

I am taking flax oil in addition to the Lyrica the dr has prescribed. Not sure how much it is helping but it cannot hurt. I know how frustrating it is to have good days and then get completely disheartened when the pain returns and you are back to feeling completely disabled. I hope everyone is better and not longer needing any treatment soon.

Ali:

I can so relate to what you are going through. I have fantasies of shaving my hair off so I can apply stuff on my skull.

I got shingles on May 4, 2013, and I will never forget it. I got it on my face, and it affected my right eye, and travelled along my trigeminal nerve to its root in the brainstem. The pain and suffering I have experienced has been awful.

The itching also kicked in, and made my nights a living hell.

In all this, I did find some relief. I strapped ice packs along my hairline, and that chilled the nerves running into my face enough to give me some precious minutes of ease. Once the ice pack warmed up, I would get up and replace it with the next one. I had six of them, stocked in the freezer...so I could get about 6 hours of sleep, in one hour increments as I awakened, scratching my face...and would go and get the next one.

Starting in September, I stopped using the ice packs and started using Tiger Balm Ultra on the painful and itchy areas of my face. This would give me immediate relief and would last as long as the menthol/camphor did (those two components evaporate out of the base, so you have to reapply a few times during the night).

This is what gives me the most benefit at present. Capsaicin and lidocaine did nothing for me.

I also take Gabapentin 300 mg twice a day. At one point, I had been taking 300 mg 5 x per day, but have gradually been staging down from that.

I recently also added a natural supplement to my regimen: PEA, sold as PeaPure, is a source of palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), and this fatty acid analogue is implicated in helping to manage neuropathic pain. I take four capsules a day of this, two in the morning and two at night. I also use a PEA-containing face cream that a friend brings over from Germany. The cream is called Dermasence Barriopro, but there is a version that you can buy on Amazon called Physiogel AI which also has PEA in it and can be obtained in the US. The PeaPure capsules can only be obtained from a pharmacist in San Diego, PJ Prescription Shoppe, (619) 223-5404. PEA takes awhile to work, so you will have to take it for weeks before you notice any benefit.

Lastly, I am about to try a new product called Gallixa that has been known to help some PHN sufferers. I will report on how that works. It can be obtained from www.gallixa.com, and there is a paper on the website from the inventor of the product where he discusses its benefit in PHN.

Hang in there! I hope some of what I shared here will help you.

Best -

Lisa