I found that there is a lot of research going on. In all this research is the key, but it is beyond me to figure it out. Here is one conclusion.....

Considerable progress has been made in developing clinically relevant animal models of hyperalgesia and allodynia. Available models cover inflammatory, traumatic, and neuropathic forms of acute or chronic pain. Standardization of animal models across laboratories has much improved the reproducibility of published work. Many efforts are presently being made to unfold the diverse pain mechanisms at the network, cellular, synaptic, and molecular levels. It is highly unlikely that a unifying model will be developed that may explain all forms of hyperalgesia and allodynia. It is more likely that a number of mechanisms are active in parallel and/or in sequence and that a characteristic pattern of mechanisms will be identified for a given pain syndrome. Thus a single magic pain killer will hardly be the future treatment of choice; rather, mechanism-based multimodal treatments that match the particular phase of pain development will be successful. Much of the future progress in the field of experimental pain research will rest on the work that is summarized in this review.

Models and Mechanisms of Hyperalgesia and Allodynia
1. Jrgen Sandkhler

OK, so they're saying that there are a lot of causes for people having aberrant pain and sensitivity experiences. Does his prediction of the unlikelihood of a magic bullet apply just to shingles? The impression I get from reading that excerpt is that there are a lot of causes of hyperalgesia and allodynia other than shingles. So there might be different ways needed to treat them.

What I'm interested in is just shingles only, and I'm just interested in gathering anecdotal accounts of people who might already have tried our full-on heat/massage/scratching method and got relief, and of people who, reading about our positive experience, might then try it and get relief. I'm hoping people might gather courage and try it. It took a bit of courage for me to do it the first time, because of the fact that I knew that touching the affected area would hurt. However if someone had told me 'don't worry- just shove it straight through the pain barrier and the pain could just totally vanish if your experience is like mine', then it would have been an easier decision to make.
Anyway I'm most interested to hear whether other people's experience IS like the ones we have had, just within the shingles sufferers cohort.

...because I am overjoyed to not have to take some sedating, constipating, 'do-not-use-heavy-machinery'drug, and have to wait tedious and painful time for it to take effect, and then exist with all those side-effects while painfully aware it's not really effective anyway! None of the drugs were doing the trick for me... but just a couple of seconds of hard massage killed the pain dead! So if that same thing could work for others, even only SOME and not all, that would be excellent.

We may be a very small niche of people that can help ourselves in this fashion. I have invited many to experiment with the rubbing of a stinging hot washcloth to stop the irritation. I have yet to get a feedback from that. I guess we all have to flounder around and find our own way to deal with the PHN. I was happy to see that there is a lot of studies going on dealing with the problem. I have found no studies that directly use a stronger stumulus to overpower the PHN pain caused by shingles.

This Discussion shows, though, that you are not alone. There are others that benefit from using anti-allodynia stimulus techniques. I hope others will give it a try and see if it works for them.

Maybe we are a very small niche within a niche that bothers to get online and check our email, let alone support groups and discussion forums :D

Mike,
I have a strong feeling that your "hot stinging washcloth" method would work for me, and I tried to test this in order to give you some feedback. Unfortunately, most of my PHN centers around the middle of my back, such that I am unable to get my hand there. It's just out of reach. But with the handle on my hairbrush, that provides just enough extra distance to get there. :) I guess that's why we all come up with our own customized methods. I think this is an excellent discussion that could really help others. I hope everyone reads this.

Hi David,

if the hot washcloth might work because it's hot, then how about filling a hot water bottle, propping it up somewhere and leaning back? I wonder if it could radiate enough heat, or whether those vanes they have all over them would insulate it too much for your purposes. Or maybe a large jar with a good seal, filled with hot water...

Good luck!

...I may be off the mark here, but have an intuition that it's pressure as much as heat that will be effective, that the texture of the washcloth would be as much a help as the heat it holds. What do you think, Mike? What if you were to use something with little tactile presence, like a hot hair dryer for example?
Anyway I mean to say that I hope a hotwater bottle may be, if needed to be, both hot enough and rough enough.

I did a long discussion before, here, where I experimented with a variety of over-the-counter medications to stop the itch - burn. The result was that I found products with 20% benzocaine in it helped a lot, in my case anyway. So, I'm willing to experiment with any of these stimulus techniques.

Yes, I think that the rubbing over and over with the washcloth is a big part of the stimulus I give myself. To experiment, next time, I'm going to use cold water instead. Lets see what happens.

I've been looking around the house, trying to locate the shocking dog collar I bought one time. It has a variable intensity setting on it. Another thing to try.

By doing things like this, it helps get my mind off "the problem" and on to ways to solve "the problem". It makes me feel as though I'm doing something, instead of just complaining about it.

I am really hoping that something rigorously tactile will just SNAP it out of itself. for me it was almost instantaneous and it was complete relief, lasting relief too. i hope you get the same. maybe it has to cover the whole area at once.... if it works for me i know it will for you

[i'm glad the dog doesn't have the collar on :)]

OK, I tried a cold wash cloth and it works for a shorter time than the hot washcloth. I also tried the dried out scratchy wash cloth. I fear that the dry method would wear my skin out real fast. It works for a short time and then the itch - burn comes back. I also found that if I use just the handle end of my plastic fork and press down real hard on the spots all over my forehead, the irritation will subside for an hour or so.

DaveSmith, have you tried a back scratcher?

I want to describe my PHN irritation. In the summer the mosquitoes are bad here. We used to play around with them to show how tough we were when I was younger. If one landed on you and started drilling, you could flex your muscles and the mosquito could not pull out his driller. Anyway, if a mosquito is left alone to drill away without swatting, the feeling produced is almost identical to the burn - itch that I feel.
For me this can be a problem now. A mosquito will land on my forehead and start drilling. I think it is only my PHN and try my best to ignore the irritation. I confuse the signals and don't realize that the mosquito is drilling away on me. Only later, I discover the big welt on my forehead. That is how similar the feeling is. So, whatever nerve parts are activated by a mosquito are the same ones that have been messed up causing postherpetic neuralgia.

Mike,

pardon me if you have tried this, but I'd be interested in your results with a strong vigorous massage with a lot of pushing around and hard pressure.

Mike,
I haven't tried a back scratcher, but that sounds like a good idea. With the longer handle, it should be easier to "operate". Thanks for the idea.
Also, the mosquito comparison to the burn-itch type of PHN is very interesting. That's a good descripion of it, for those who have never experienced it.
I am wondering in your early stages of Shingles, did you ever get the deep stabbing pains? My first 6 weeks, included this type of pain, which started out as tiny pins and needles, but quickly escalated into knives and daggers, over the first week after the blisters started. That slowly dissipated, and now I am left with the burn-itch, but I don't think it is quite as bad as yours. 1200 mg of Gabapentin controls it very well. Today I am titrating down, and will be off of it completely after 5 days. I'll see where I stand at that point.

In and just above my eyebrow is the worst. That is where the nerves come out from behind my eyeball and curve up onto my head. See the pictures under my profile. Also a deeper pain is felt in the temple area and I think it has something to do with my lacrimal nerve.
When I had active shingles, I was put on gabapentin. That is sooner then normal. I did have some shooting pains anyway, but they soon went away. I would like to thank my daughter for anticipating that. She is a Doctor of Pharmacology. Usually the doctors will not give gabapentin, until later, when you go to them with the shooting pain.
Last night, around 8, I had the normal evening increase in burn-itch. I mangled the eyebrow area as suggested. Not so hard as to physically hurt myself, but hard enough to hurt a little bit. The irritation subsided back to the normal daytime faint irritation after a few minutes So, it does work similar to dsusr's technique. Your right, it does take a little bit of guts to do that. It's like your trying to hurt your hurt. It is hard to overcome a normal response and go with logic that tells you that you are experiencing a FALSE pain and that the REAL pain overpowers it somehow.

Excellent! I am very happy that it worked for you :) Though I do wish the cessation of irritation had been complete.
I have to admit the first time I discovered this, there wasn't much thought in my head except something like "AAAAARRGHHH" :D Just stress and an end-of-the-tether sort of feeling, because this pain was so unpleasant and hanging around so annoyingly- just luck or instinct or something. Trying it the second time to see whether the first had been just a fluke was a bit daunting.
Anyway it's great, Mike. Bravo and congrats :)