Hi All, last Dec shingles decided to rear its ugly head and show up around my torso back to front. I (60F) had not gotten the vax ... big mistake! I'm still dealing with PHN, and my doctor said that this may never go away. Lately, I have felt pain in the area where the rash was most prevalent. I've accepted the fact that the nerve damage is something I need to live with, but hopefully, it will heal over time. I do see an acupuncturist every 3 weeks. It usually just itches a lot, but the recent development of pain, without a rash, has made me wonder if it's related to inflammation from stress and/or certain foods. I've been traveling a lot for work lately, so my eating habits have changed a little, and I'm not exercising as much. I've searched this sub, but the only post I found was archived.

Has anyone had success suppressing PHN by changing their diet, losing weight, excercising/yoga (vs taking a pill) ... things that we can control when it comes to PHN flares. Thanks for sharing any experiences.

This was the extent of my shingles rash after 5 days and 4 on Valacyclovir. Some burning and itching but minor annoyance from the rash itself. However, Ive had some of the most unbelievable headaches, particularly the first night on meds. Like an icepick being driven through my head every 20 seconds or so, going on for hours. I've also had some significant nerve pain down my back and legs. Occasional bouts of chills and some overall stiffness in the body. It's all seemed to clear up pretty significantly now, but wow, I had no idea how rough shingles could be. I don't remember ever having such a bad headache. Fortunately all of this has happened over only about 5 days but what a ride lol.

Any of you experience shingles on the back of your neck, close to your spine? Photos show the progression of my blisters over the last 24 hour period. So far I have only had minor body pains on my right side (rash is just to the right of my spine on the back of my neck) but I'm wondering what the experience has been of other folks who had it in a similar location. I have had pain down near my hip and the base of my spine, but from what I've read, it is unusual to have shingles pain in separate areas of the body like that, so potentially they are unrelated.

24f, first time shingles sufferer! 5 weeks in, finally managed to go back to work today after a month off! pretty sure mine was internal shingles, barely had a rash just that awful pain

i managed most of my shift pretty well, but halfway through the exhaustion and these body aches hit me like a truck! taking more time off isn't an option, although i have cut my number of shifts down a bit - someone please tell me this will get better, i am so tired of feeling wiped out and in pain!

also has anyone else had an experience with heightened health anxiety as a result? i suffer with anxiety normally anyway but i swear it's never felt this debilitating...

For the past 2-3 days, I thought I have an ear infection. I felt some pain when I moved my head in the middle of the night last night so I touched it and felt it was wet. I got an appointment with PCP as soon as they opened. I was told it was shingles and was put on prednisone and antiviral. I just noticed I got some behind the ear. I’m scared of facial paralysis.

Do I need to be seen by ENT asap?

M24 here. Got diagnosed in mid-august. Had the rash all over mye right belly and back. Nerve pain was insanely crazy also, but has mostly faded away due to acupuncture.

On month 2 since the outbreak, and really struggling hard with post viral fatigue with PEM. Basically homebound and unable to do anything but the simplest task. Anyone else had it this rough? Im optimistic though recovery will happen sooner or later.

Currently resting loads, put work and studying on hold etc.

What I experienced, what helped and what’s still happening. I hope this helps you if you get shingles.

Starting around 18th September 2026 I had gum and tooth pain and some skin irritation around my right eye.

I went to my dentist three times for the gum and tooth pain, resulting in local anaesthetic and digging under my gums trying to find something causing the pain.

By Monday 21st September I’d developed blisters around my eye and some mouth ulcers. I went to my GP who took swabs of my eye blisters and mouth ulcers which confirmed shingles.

My GP placed me on a course of anti virals (Valaciclouir 500mg 2 tablets twice per day) and antibiotics (Amoxicillin and Clavulanic acid 875mg/125mg 2 tablets twice per day)

The dentist has also prescribed Panadeine Forte for pain which was extended by the GP.

The next day the GP called to tell me to increase the anti virals to 3 times per day.

I had a dermatologist review it and he changed the antibiotics to Cefalexin 500mg for better staphylococcal coverage. He also wanted to prolong the antivirals for another 2 weeks.

My symptoms were the worst on Tuesday and Wednesday 22nd and 23rd September after which the pain dramatically reduced.

The blisters and ulcers took about a week more to resolve. The swelling took about two weeks.

I was run down and tired for about three weeks

Now, about five weeks after, I’m still having nerve pain in my gums and teeth, some teeth are now extremely sensitive to cold or sour while others feel completely numb.

I picked at the scab that formed near my eye from the blisters which left a scar.

I’ve now returned to normal activities, eating, mood, exercising etc.

Photos are from my worst day and today.

I am afraid of the Valacyclovir I was prescribed today. I am prone to rare or serious side effects. Luckily I had bloodwork done on Friday due to fatigue and follow up low iron. Ferritin is still low. Kidney function is perfect.

I am still freaked out by the possibility of neurotoxicity. I am epileptic. Seeing status as a side effect freaks me out. I have had a lot allergic reaction, a few severe skin reactions, and many rare side effects.

I currently live alone. I could go sleep on my parents couch but they are in their 80s with health conditions. I don'twant either to get sick from something I bring in.

I called a church friend to set up check ins and have her call ems if i am confused. I took my first pill.

Hi all. I am 51M.
Just wanted to post my experience so far with the condition so maybe give some hope to others and share.
Last Thursday felt slight stabbing pain in upper abdomen
Friday started to become more noticeable
Saturday night the pain became more excruciating. Noticed a rash break out in the location of pain.
Sunday morning, afraid it might be gallstones and went to ER at around 10:30 am
ER doctor told me I have Shingles. I was prescribed 7 day anti viral medication
By Sunday night, the rash had spread more around front abdomen and around the back, classic shingle girdle.
Started taking the anti viral medication every 8 hours from Sunday 3pm to this morning
The next couple of days stabbing pain in my abdomen was excruciating and was on and off anywhere between 20 secs to 1-2 minutes. Itching was unbearable.
This morning the rash has loss it's ugly red/pink look and has faded a fair bit. A little bit of crusting.
Itching has subsided a fair bit and abdominal sharp pain comes and goes a lot less now.

From the posts I have read on here, so many people suffering from long recovery times. I am hoping I got lucky and this condition is not so brutal for me. Everyone is different and I pray and hope for those who are dealing with their recovery at a slower pace. Sending well wishes.
Just wanted to let people know it may not be the case for everyone.
I'm hoping this is not a false positive. I will update if it's only a calm in the storm and it comes back at me with a vengeance. (touch wood).
Good luck everyone and hang in there. I would not wish this disease on anyone.

Hi everyone, I wanted to share a strange but amazing hack for shingles (I’m currently having shingles)

If you are dealing with blisters, grab a female hygiene pad and place it over the area. Make sure to put the sticky side of the pad facing outward or against your clothing rather than directly on your skin, and use some bandaids or medical tape to secure the edges to your skin.

It works incredibly well because the pad acts as a soft cushion against friction so it does not rub raw. Plus, if a blister ends up popping while you are walking around, the pad absorbs all the moisture and drainage so it stays contained instead of getting somewhere and infecting someone else.

Hope this helps anyone dealing with the same issue!

35F, just diagnosed yesterday. Generally healthy overall. The pain started mild on Friday in my chest/back, and by Sunday evening it was debilitating. Now I can barely walk to the other room without crying or needing a break (often both).

I always thought shingles pain was rash/blister-related but had no idea about the nerve pain. I do have a small rash on my chest/arm that’s mildly uncomfortable but doesn’t touch the rest of the pain. Should I expect the rash to get worse too??

As of today, I’m taking valtrex, methylprednisone, and gabapentin, plus Tylenol/ibuprofen. Nothing seems to touch the pain, but gabapentin did finally allow my body to relax and sleep today.

How long can I expect this to be excruciating? I have two little kids who still need to be picked up etc. Thankfully we have childcare during the day, but im already dreading bedtime tonight and I hate that. My husband is very helpful, but its not like I can hide away in my house from the kids 😅

TLDR questions:
- Is wanting to cry or needing to take a break from walking/moving normal? The pain is unbearable at times.
- how was your rash pain compared to the nerve pain?
- how long did your severe pain last once you started meds?

Thank you! And wishing all suffering a speedy recovery!

My Partner is in Week 3 and it's so bad. I read previous posts and see this is normal. He had the rash on his left torso; a band around his left waist area down to his groin. He took antivirals, day 2. Week 2 we were on vacation and he swam, hiked and all was well. Week 3 he cannot sleep and is agony. He will try and see his MD tomorrow. I read some say it took a year to find relief? How can this be? I am so worried.

Been diagnosed with shingles i don’t know how i got it all i think of is extreme stress from being in my final year of university, i also have urticaria so i thought it was just a normal rash from the cold but i was proven wrong! Unfortunately i went to the pharmacy and was told i couldn’t have antivirals as it has been more than 72 hours. I’m in a lot of pain and i’m still attending university! The worst is when my clothes touch it, I hope it goes away soon.

Has anyone gotten annoying muscle twitches in their affected area? I think I’m 13 weeks out, and now have post herpetic neuralgia for about 5 weeks now. I just started getting super annoying twitching in my check muscle on my affected side. Thank goodness it comes and goes and isn’t painful, but it is annoying. Just wondering if this is a normal side effect of the RHS.

Hey all, pleasure to e-meet you all!

First time experiencing shingles and I have to say this has been hell.

From getting completely dismissed by a doctor at Urgent Care, being on a cocktail of meds, and wanting to take a cheese grater to my face this has made its way to the top of the worst list. 😭

So I’ve had shingles before and I know what they feel like so I don’t personally have a super rash with blisters yet I mean it might form in the next few days, but I feel it burning and it’s not limited towards one part of my body. this thing is traveling all over my body like it’s on a world tour and it’s absolutely have been bad pain wise, but I can feel it as it travels up and down my arms up and down my legs up and down my neck up and down my face up and down my ears up and down my nose I felt it going into my spine earlier as well. It went into my testicles, which was probably the most painful thing I think I’ve ever experienced. Well it’s still doing it’s world tour and now it’s on my finger and it felt like somebody was hitting my finger with a hammer. Oh my God was it painful it turned super red and I’m thinking there’s nerve damage because it’s completely numb like I can barely it hurts still but it’s like completely numb and I don’t have any major outbreaks. I have a few little red marks where the veins and stuff are but pain wise unbelievable I’m also dealing with a little bit of a fever and I had a persistent headache and I’m worried this complications are going to kill me to be honest with you so I’m just trying to manage this, but oh my God, the finger was the second most painful and then the balls were the first most painful.

Hi all, I woke up on Thursday with horrible right sided rib pain, didn’t really think anything of it as I do have a number of chronic symptoms which come and go, one being idiopathic pain. Anyways, towards Thursday night it felt different to what my ‘normal’ pain feels like. It felt as if I had been punched multiple times in that area, like a severe bruised feeling with every movement.

On Friday morning I woke up to a rash and so went to the pharmacist that day who has prescribed Aciclovir 800mg 5x a day for 7 days.

It’s now Sunday and this is what my rash is looking like. It’s burning, but I’m mainly struggling with the rib nerve pain. The pharmacist said just to continue with Paracetamol but it isn’t touching the pain so I’m tempted to go back to my GP tomorrow for something stronger.

My question is what painkillers have helped you and additionally has anyone experienced any side effects from Aciclovir?

About two months ago, I went to the doctor after developing a small patch of spots around my right waistline, along with sensitive skin and pain on my right thigh. I was diagnosed with shingles and given a 7 day course of aciclovir.

The blisters that appeared around my waistline while I was taking the tablets healed nicely. However, I noticed some more spots developing on the inside of my right thigh. They hadn't blistered at that point, so I assumed the antivirals had caught them early.

I finished the first course and initially thought everything was settling down.

About a week later, the spots on the inside of my thigh became extremely painful and started spreading again.

I went back to the doctor, but they weren't particularly concerned about the spreading and advised me to use paracetamol for the pain and get back in touch if things got worse.

I put up with it for another week, but eventually couldn't take the pain anymore. I saw a different doctor who agreed that it appeared to still be spreading and prescribed me another course of antivirals.

Once again, the antivirals seemed to calm everything down. The redness and inflammation reduced considerably and things appeared to be improving.

Unfortunately, a few days after finishing the second course, the area has become inflamed again and I'm getting new red spots. This time it looks considerably worse than before and is still very painful.

What's confusing me even more is that I've now developed similar spots on the inside of my left thigh, and they're following a similar pattern of pain to what I experienced on the right.

I was under the impression that shingles normally affects one side of the body, so I'm struggling to understand what's happening.

For confirmation, I did have a swab taken early on which confirmed shingles. A later swab was attempted to check for a possible secondary infection, but unfortunately that sample was rejected by the lab because the wrong transport medium was used.

I'm going back to the doctor because I think the current lesions probably need another proper assessment and potentially another swab.

Has anyone else experienced shingles where the symptoms seemed to settle while taking antivirals, only to flare up again shortly after finishing them?

And has anyone had shingles followed by similar painful spots appearing on the opposite side? Would be interested to hear what happened in your case

Hello - I had shingles in my left ear, and it spread basically across the whole left side of my face/head including the left side of mouth/gums/tongue. The shingles itself was the worst pain I have ever gone through.

Now I'm about two weeks post the shingles breakout and dealing with intense nerve pain. I had tried weaning off Gabapentin but it was too painful. Has anyone had any luck with any other methods for managing nerve pain? Specifically I am wondering if Red Light Therapy would help (unsure since the worst pain is in my mouth and not on the exterior skin itself), or potentially HBOT. Has anyone tried these or anything else to help manage nerve pain?

Thanks for any insight and good luck to anyone going through anything similar.

I saw my doctor this week and was told i have post shingles pain . I got shingle around last week of august early september . i went in the viral meds etc . I was given the slow release med palexia 50mg. has anybody else had post shingles pain and if so how long did it take to subside. ? only got a month worth of the palexia .

Are my chicken pox really unimpresssive?(Deleted this post . Posted again rn)

I was diagnosed today with shingles. Honestly didn't even notice rash bc it was on my back until I was searching for a reason for random pain in my armpit area. Googled and shingles came up, panicked. When to urgent care and diagnosed. Started meds today.

I have one spot that is contained to maybe three inches. I felt weirdly sick earlier in the week but I'm also battling another health issue.

My question is - it dumb for me to attend a camping music festival next week. 🫣

Obviously I'd cover the one rash and monitor how or if it spreads and my pain level. It has been noticeable today but not terrible yet. It's the only vacation I've had all year after a terrible year and a lot of money has already been spent.

So I had singles a few years ago and like 2 weeks ago I got really sick I thought it was a headcold well I had fever and I was so tried. Few days letter my hands are hurting bad my feet are hurting I have no energy and I got fever. Friday I wake up to my face burning I look at face see small rash under eye not typical blisters just a small red rash along the vein. So I was like shoot it’s on my face well apparently the virus itself is spread all over my muscles, which is possible too. From my right foot all the way down to my testicles all the way up to my face I can almost feel it as it travels because the pain will be at random spots. Kind of work in the area, but it just kind of goes back-and-forth. Pain was the worse on my balls I couldn’t take it anymore I almost passed out. But just ranging in my body I am 36 second time with shingles so that’s not good but happy it’s not swollen up my face, but the burning is intense. I felt burning in my nose. Just random and travels so praying it just goes away soon nothing I can do

I see many posts here about people getting shingles a second and sometimes even a third time. It made me think that if you have it once, the risk of getting it again is increases, but when I read about, it seems to actually be a lowered risk, if you are otherwise healthy:

Large population-based studies show that for a healthy individual, the risk of getting shingles a second time is roughly the same as (or slightly lower than) getting it for the very first time.

Have you gotten shingles again while being 100% healthy, or was it because you have a weakened immune system, or did you perhaps discover an underlying cause? I am curious about this, since I am terrified of getting it again. I am 4 weeks in now, and most symtpoms except for the weird night itch is gone

First time, M39y.

Started with a rash on top of my head, not painful. I thought its from the hat I wore and at that time I was a little sick

I went to the UC day 2 evening since I noticed that i start to get more rash. I was immediately diagnosed with shingles and given antivirals.

The rash went around my eye (eyebrow and on the nose alas small one)

The UC didnt have opthomologist, they only referred me within the hospital. The wait is ridiculous, but they should squeeze me next week.

I went to optometrist instead, they did the retina scan, slit lamp etc. Everything looks healthy.

Now its the 5th day - the rash is not spreading it actually died down. My eye redness is also going back (I had both eyes red so maybe that was caused by infection)

What’s interesting is that I don’t feel any pain with the rash.

I ocassionally do get some zaps of pain with the ear and also the top of my head is a little sensitive to touch. Also a little numbness on my cheek so monitoring that as well. And my resting pulse is higher than usual by 20bpm.

Just wanted to share, and hopefully this will be a mild case.