I had my shingles the same plce as you but on the left side of my face,head,eye, etc. Cymbalta I had a terrible reaction,Neurontin didn't help, I was on Lyrica for one a half years. It really is up to the individual. I don't take any of those pills anymore...when I can't stand the pain and itching, I take a half a 7 percoset. Everything else just didn;t work. It will be two yrs. this Aug. 11th. Each person is different. You try and just hope....It's not hopeless...but I think when your body decides to heal it will. That's the conclusion I came to. There is hope but you just have keep trying....DD

I use Lyrica which helps a lot but it does make me drowsy so I only take it when I can sleep for a few hours afterward. It may not affect everyone that way. I am very sensitive to medication and a lot of it makes me very sleepy so I would only take a small dose of any of these drugs with sedating side effects. But the Lyrica made a big difference re: the pain.

Yes, I tried Neurontin which I guess is sinilar to Lyrica and it made me way to tired to function. Do you just take the Lyrica at night? The problem is that I am also very sensitive to medications and I need to return to work soon. I really wish I could find something that doesn't knock me out because I can't imagine working with this pain. Last night I tried Ultracet. This knocks me out as well and I can't really tell how much it helped with the pain. I wish they would come up with better medications for us.

I don't take it at night because that is when I work. I take it at bedtime and when I am at home and don't have to go anywhere. So it is problematic because I have to go 8 or more hours at work without any pain medication and I am often quite sore by the time the shift ends. On another note, does anyone find that people like to touch their shoulders? This is where my shingles is and I find people forever invading my privacy and causing me megapain by tapping me or striking or squeezing my shoulders. It is excruciating and it makes me want to retreat and not go anywhere as total strangers do this. So I am rapidly becoming a recluse to avoid being manhandled in this way.

I am so sorry that people are touching your shoulders alot where the shingles were. That must be awful. I am also very sensitive to medications. Can I ask what dosage of the Lyrica you are on per day? I might ask might doctor about Lyrica. Maybe I could just take something at bedtime. The doctor wanted me to take 900 mg. of the Neurontin, but I was so drugged out trying to up my dosage and I was taking this 3 times a day.

I take 75 mg. of Lyrica twice a day. Someone just did a number on my shoulder Tuesday and it hurt until today. I don't understand why people do that.

That must be terrible. I know if I even lightly press or touch the area of the shingles I hurt for a while. By the way did you gain weight on Lyrica? That seems like a side effect that I hear of often with it.

Yes the area is very sensitive and for some reason, people just LOVE to touch other people's shoulders. Having had shingles has taught me to respect boundaries and give people space. You never know what pain another experiences. Yes I did gain a bit of weight but I had lost some weight in the initial stages of the illness because I just could not eat anything. So in the end I stayed the same.

I currently have a real bad case of shingles on my back stretching around to my breast. I went through major back surgery with rods in my back and everything and the pain from the shingles is far worse than the back surgery ever could have been. But I did not know it was shingles for 6 days. When i found out i did what i always do when i get sick Eat only raw food (fruits and veggies) Drink lots and lots of barley juice and juice carrots, strawberries and apples. Since i have been doing this the pain has dropped by more than half (i no longer need a narcotic) and the shingles is actually going away. Oh another thing very important is Omega 3's not from fish you need to do lots of flax oil, olive oil etc..if you need to know where to get the barley and oils email me jessicadelight@hotmail.com and i will give you a website to buy them off of. I swear this is the best stuff ever! I also have pictures of my shingles. I am documenting this everyday, everything i use and everything i eat. you must stay away from all dairy and animal protien they have an amino acid anginin that feeds the shingles virus.

Thanks for your advice.

I had a terrible time with pain (better now - but not gone). I practically had to beg my MD for pain meds. Got a new health care provider who actually seems to care! Started first on Lyrica (150mg twice a day), but it did not seem to help at all. Was on that for a month. Then got prescribed Lyrica 300mg twice a day. I think the larger dose of Lyrica along with time finally stopped the worst of the agonizingly painful pain episodes. I am also taking amitryptaline 50mg daily. I was doing pretty good and had little if any pain, and had partially gotten over the lassitude the drugs were causing. Then a month later, I asked my doctor to switch me over to gabapentin, because the cost of the Lyrica was $100 more per month (I have no health insurance and am on a fixed income). Within a week, the pain came back - not the worst pain as before, but pain anyway, at times a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. I was taking 600mg a day, then 900mg a day. No relief. I then was able to get into a new drug study, and received 1800mg per day. Still no relief that I could tell. Well, I'm still in the drug study (double blind) and hoping for some relief. If not, I've just discovered that Pfizer - mfgr. of Lyrica - has a program to help people such as myself. So I hope to get back on Lyrica when the drug study is over. I know everyone reacts differently to different drugs, but in my experience, Lyrica (pregabalin - no generics available)was the only one that helped. I hope this helps you. Rick