Shingles and Lyrica

[Crankin]

My only thoughts are that I have fibromyalgia and I refuse to take Lyrica because of all of the side effects. I take a small dose (10 mg) of Elavil which is an older anti-depressant that seems to be used for a lot of "off" label diagnoses. Perhaps this might be an alternative?
Talk to your doctor.

[Chicken Little]

Did the Lyrica help with the discomfort? I have seen shingles make grown men cry, I would take it. You didn't mention if you had any underlying disease processes- I assume you are healthy enough to take this med and the shingles is just bad luck. Is that true?

[violette]

I'm curious; what is shingles?

[Veronica]

Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. Once a person has had chickenpox, the virus can live, but remain inactive, in your body. If it becomes active again, usually later in life, it can cause Shingles. If you've had chickenpox, there is no way to predict if you'll get Shingles. What's more, the inactive virus usually has no signs or symptoms. So Shingles can appear at any time without warning.

From shinglesinfo.com


It turns out that's what I had when I was on my Nova Scotia self supported tour in 2006. It started out as a bad headache, then my eyes got all puffy, then I got what looked like giant acne all over my forehead. I went to a health clinic, with the puffy eyes and headache and got treated for migraine.

I didn't know for sure that's what it was until I went to my eye doctor 3 or 4 months later and had some new scarring on my corneas and he asked me about it. When I described all my symptoms, he told me that's what I had had.

I'm guessing I must have had a rather light case since I cycled 19 days with it on the tour and had no drugs other than Advil.

They are not really sure what causes it to flair up. Stress can be a factor.

V.

[five one]

DH is a lymphoma survivor. Five months after his bone marrow transplant in 1991, while his immune system was still compromised, he came down with shingles. He got it on both his trunk and face. It moved very quickly, especially on his face, and before it could be controlled, it had destroyed the optic nerve in his left eye leaving him blind in that eye. The pain was horrible and he had to be hospitalized and put on morphine several times. The scarring on his face from the blisters messed up his tear duct, so he has to wear a patch on his eye at all times to keep his eye from drying out. Looking back, he has said that shingles was far worse than any cancer treatment (chemo, radiation, BMT) that he went through. Very scary disease, shingles. Be careful, Biker Jo.

[mimitabby]

yeah, no kidding. I have heard bad stories too. My aunt got it when she was 85 (2 years ago) it's the worst thing that ever happened to her. nerve damage on her face. Not pretty
and yes, lots of pain. whatever works you should take.

[salsabike]

My understanding is that they are now recommending people who had chicken pox in the past should, at the age of 60, get re-innoculated (or something equivalent) to protect against the development of shingles later.