Sorry to hear you got shingles. Please try to avoid ppl who haven't had chicken pox yet.

If you have shingles

Keep the rash covered.
Avoid touching or scratching the rash.
Wash your hands often to prevent the spread of varicella zoster virus.
Until your rash has developed crusts, avoid contact with
pregnant women who have never had chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine;
premature or low birth weight infants; and
people with weakened immune systems, such as people receiving immunosuppressive medications or undergoing chemotherapy, organ transplant recipients, and people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

https://www.cdc.gov/shingles/about/

It will if you don't get it treated early. I caught it early when I felt itchy on my back and my wife saw some scars.
My coworker caught it late and got the shingles on her eyes and the doctor said any layer and she could have been blinded by it.


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Update: Day 2: Rash is still only on my forearm, no fever or headache but starting to feel itchy all over.

Sorry you have to experience this.

Shingles was probably one of the worst experiences of my life. Extreme jolting pain every 30 seconds. I had it when I was 25. My doctor, the pharmacist, etc, all said it was unusual to get it at such a young age. I was going through some crazy/depressive life things, so it made sense that my body was under a lot of stress.

When I had it, the rash developed in the typical "band" around my ribcages, like I was wearing a thin tube top lol. Got some antivirals, but I got mine pretty late. If you haven't already, go get a prescription asap.

Good luck, hope it blows over fast.

can you have shingles more than once?

your answer is in here https://www.cdc.gov/shingles/about/overview.html

In case you are wondering.. you can get shots at your family physician.

Yes you can have shingles more than once. Shingles usually occurs when your immune system is weak and it is just a flare up of the chicken pox virus.

Just got diagnosed a couple of hours ago. Had rashes on my body last couple of days and started antiviral treatment.

Started with massive pain in my neck. Thought I just slept funny. Then I saw the rashes form and thought 'I'm too young for this'.

Apparently I'm not. Don't wish this on anyone...

^if you catch it early, there are medication that helps suppress and control it.

It is painful and there is no "real" cause. Hope you heal up fast man.

Just curious if you guys asked your DR if you could use any topical numbing creams during an attack?

Since shingles affects the nerves?? How do you guys manage the pain?

Thankfully, I was diagnosed within the recommended 72 hour window. The Valtrex is working as the pain has went from constant to lightning bolt style blasts through the infected areas. They come and go at complete random. One rash itches which I don't scratch. Accidentally grazed my nail on one and the pain was intense burning.

Thankfully the weather has been cooler. Allows me to wear long sleeve shirts. Have to pop my collars though as my neck looks like an overbaked cheese stick. Unfortunately a small cluster of rashes reached the jaw area of my face but my facial hair covered it up pretty quickly.

After 4 days of this, I'm averaging 10 hours of sleep and 1-2 naps as well. My free time has been relegated to watching fail compilation videos and abandoned structure exploration videos.

I didn't ask my Doctor about creams but I was looking online the day I was diagnosed and noticed the three common use creams are:

- Calamine
- Capsaicin
- Lidocaine

I would honestly check with the Doctor first as there are side effects possible with each of these especially Lidocaine.

In the early stages of my diagnosis when the pain was the constant, the only way I could deal with the pain was to sit on my very comfortable sofa, watch TV and minimize movement. I tried what I could to minimize nerve interaction.

Now, for me, the pain is intermittent and comes in jolts. No more than 15 seconds of pain and then I'm fine. Currently my main battle is with fatigue and shoulder stiffness but I believe that's mostly do to my new forced sleeping position.

Best way to minimize pain is early treatment. Anti-virals will be ineffective if the diagnosis was very late so that will have a cascading effect on recovering time and and increase chance of postherpetic neuralgia.

My grandma had shingles and was past the 72 hrs She was in so much pain to a point where she wanted to jump off a building. Lucky she got thru it.

I would just take short term disability / sick days and heal up. My friend who is 32 got it last yr and also caught it early.

Do they have this in Canada yet? Seems like it would be the perfect drug for that kind of pain (neuralgia)

Might not be strong enough though, not sure

I'm not able to find it in Canada. Searched for it online though maybe I wasn't looking in the right corners of the web. With the amount of Chinese medicinal shops around here, I don't see why it wouldn't be unless it contains banned ingredients..