hi everybody I just joined this group. I only have this pain 4 weeks and cant see my self going on much longer I have a great tolerance of pain but I have never experience pain like this.do you still get the itch after months. and the stabbing pains I have my shingles on my inner thigh and down to my knee. my problem is I have varicose veins in this area as well and the nerves must be hitting of these.Sorry for going on but its great to talk like this my family are getting fed up with me [joke] .

" hi julliegirl please do not give up hope.Asked your doc can he put you on amitriptyline its a old antidepressant, but it also very good for nerve pain small dose of 25mg taking 12 hrs before you wake will not make you dopey.I was put on this for migraine and it worked great all my other pains. I have not tried it yet on this pain because I was on so much other pain killers but I will soon . please god you will feel better soonxx

I had shingles in 2009 and continue till this day to suffer from the phn pain. I've tried many medications but nothing really helps the pain. I am currently taking hydrocodone, although I hate being reliant on a pain medication. I did have one treatment that worked but unfortunately it only works for a few months. It is a very high dose of capsaicin patch that needs to be applied at a clinic. It's called Qutenza (capsaicin) 8% Patch. However, after the patch was applied the pain slowly started to increase and became so intense I thought I would pass out. The patch is supposed to stay on between 10-20 minutes but I made them take it off after 10 minutes. They did say not everyone response to the patch with such intense pain as I did (lucky me). BUT, after the pain subsided (by the next day) my pain level was significantly lower to where I didn't need to take pain medication. The results of the patch supposedly last for 3 months. Was it worth it? I'm not sure to be honest. When my pain gets bad I think about if I should do the patch again but decide against it for now (it is also very pricey for something that takes away pain for only 3 months but that may be worth it to some). I would strongly suggest taking a pain pill before the patch is applied though, something the doctor didn't tell me so I didnt bring one with me to the clinic. Anyway, thought Id throw another option out there. Id be happy to share more of my experience with this treatment if anyone has any questions. When I realized the phn may never go away I was in near mourning. The thought of being in pain the rest of my life was terrible. But some days its just part of my everyday life and other days I just want to scream. I guess Im still trying to come to terms with it.

What a wonderful show of support! And great advice from previous commenters! I do hope, Juliettagirl, you find some relief!

I might add that Percocet or any other narcotic for shingles pain will ultimately fail. Narcotics aren't good nerve pain medicines. And one builds tolerance to them, requiring an ever increasing dose. Eventually, you have all side effect, and minimal benefit. The narcotic might be depressing you rather than helping the pain.

One last thing, there are counselors/psychologists that specialize in dealing with chronic pain.

There is hope! Hang in there!

juliettagirl,

I am sorry that you are feeling this pain. 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

I am so empathetic. I feel like I can't go on like this either, but I try to think about people with ALS or cancer and try to be grateful to be alive, however suffering. We're here for a reason, but it hurts like hell. The frustration is that there is no help for it, you just have to live with it. Kind of hard, but you do get to live.

julietta girl,

I also am in chronic pain from phn and my doctor gives me 5mg oxycontin a day only, It is not enough at all and just researched that higher doses are safe and wondering if you also could find some relief from a higher dosage. God help us both...