Shingles

Has anyone had it? I am 31 and I have it. Apparently a particularly stressful event can bring them on.

Last week, while on vacation from work of course, we had a problem with our koi pond water supply's carbon filter not working. I had done a routine water change with (unknown to me) unpurified water and two big koi suffocated to death from gill damage as a result of chloramine poisoning. They pretty much had outright chemical burns on their gills. I can't imagine the pain they must have been in. Adding to that, almost all the baby koi from this year's spawns died. I had no way of knowing that my water change was hurting them. I had faith that the activated carbon was removing the toxic chlorine and chloramine from the city water supply. We went the filter route to eliminate having to add neutralizing chemicals to the water every time we did a water change. I got a total chlorine test kit after the second koi died because I had ruled everything else out. It was incredibly high levels. I was hysterical with anger and grief, on top of being anxious about the upcoming weekend when we would be replacing the roof. Once we had alleviated the problem with the pond, all the big koi seemed ok and I had scooped out all the dead babies, we decided to try to relax at the beach. I noticed that my abdomen was itchy while sunbathing. That night, I had a big red rash on my stomach just below and to the side of my navel. By Friday afternoon, the rash was covered in painful blisters. I did my best to ignore it, thinking it was poison ivy or something. We were too busy pouring a concrete patio for me to try to be seen by an MD and I was carrying 60lb bags of concrete for my husband to use. My back ached but I was too busy to worry about it. My back always hurts for one reason or another, usually construction. Saturday and Sunday, I was harnessed to the roof, sitting on the peak tearing shingles off and resheeting the old roof. Any time I was off the roof, I was in the bathroom putting on antibacterial ointment with topical anesthetic in it to dull the pain. Monday morning I still had painful blisters and my back was killing me. I still figured it was a weird poison ivy and my back was hurting from doing the concrete work on Friday and from roofing. Then today it dawned on me. What if I have shingles??? I looked it up and the symptoms matched. Got confirmation from the doctor. It's too late for any injections to stop the progression so I just have to watch that the rash is healing. Figures. I had shingles while removing shingles.

I had shingles, while undergoing chemotherapy. In the face. What brought most relief was aveeno anti-itch with 1% cortisone. Being stressed or immuno-deficient can bring shingles. I hope you get better soon.

I've heard of it. It's a strange illness. They say that older people are the most likely to get it and black people are the least likely to get it. Go figure. I am sorry you were a bit too late to do the anti-virals. I heard that Acyclovir can shorten the time you have shingles. I have also heard good things about lysine (available over the counter). On healthboards.com, there's a whole section on shingles and they have a wealth of information. I am sorry you are not feeling well and I hope that you feel better soon. I am also sorry about the koi.

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peace-n-quiet
They say that older people are the most likely to get it and black people are the least likely to get it.

Yeah, I wish the medical community would put less emphasis on that and advise that younger folks can get shingles. It would lead more people to recognize the malady and get treatment before the 72 hour effective window closes

I had two non-rash attacks before a full-blown outbreak on the third try. It can be difficult to diagnose. The first time I thought I had pulled a muscle in my back (I have a bad one, too. even been through a bout of sciatica), the second time I thought I had a kidney infection since the pain was localized in a band from the spine to that area. The doctor checked me out and said my kidneys were fine but that there are nerves that run horizontally from the spine around to the abdomen and I may have pulled something. Neither of us even considered shingles. Third time is when the pain was the worst and then the rash developed. Even then, it took a long time for me to wonder what was going on. I mean, I was only 51 - old people got shingles, not young or middle age people. Unfortunately, by the time a light bulb came on, four days had passed. The doctor still put me on Famciclovir for the rash and Vicodin for the pain. The Vicodin made me puke and pass out, so I just switched over to large doses of acetaminophen.

So, hang in their CCL. Sorry about the fishes.

Going through shingles kind of put me on a tear about the non-vax crowd and those who want their kids to get chicken pox, seeing it is a minor childhood illness to just get out of the way. What you might suffer later in life, having that virus hanging around your nerve ends forever after, is a lot worse than chicken pox.

Interesting.

I am working for a new client that is a major producer of vaccines. The FDA just lowered the approval on the major vaccine for shingles from 65 to 50, and the vaccination guidelines are likely to change so that people 50 and over should get the vaccine earlier.

Apparently, there is a whole untapped reservoir of brats who never had chicken pox and they are spreading the virus to us middle-agers like wildfire.

Anyone care to question why I avoid brats?

What makes me shake my head is that chicken pox is treated as such an inconsequential illness by parents. I remember being horribly, horribly sick when I had them as a kid. The itching, the fever. I was almost put into the hospital because my temperature went up so high.

Parents don't project far into the future. Maybe they don't want to think of their kids being of an age to get shingles because then they, themselves, would be old folks, but the consequences of wanting your kids to get chicken pox or not having their kids vaccinated for it can be really-really bad, decades down the line.

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The FDA just lowered the approval on the major vaccine for shingles from 65 to 50, and the vaccination guidelines are likely to change so that people 50 and over should get the vaccine earlier.

Saw that. The chain drugstores have signs advertising the availability of the vaccine, just as they advertise for flu shots.

One thing I was very careful about was the possibility of transmitting my shingles virus. As the article states

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The shingles vaccine helps prevent shingles in the person receiving the immunization. But because shingles is a contagious viral infection, the shingles vaccine also works to stop the spread of the virus just like childhood immunizations for varicella or measles, mumps, and rubella.

If a person with shingles passes the virus to someone who has never had chickenpox, the newly infected person will develop chickenpox, not shingles.

I covered the rash with a light dressing and slept in the guest room until the oozing part was past (gaaah. that was nasty). Dh has had chicken pox, but wasn't sure about co-workers. I didn't want him picking up a hitchhiking virus and possibly causing others to get sick. That might be something to be careful about Crazycatlady.

Yes I have considered that, Dorisan. Fortunately, I contacted the 4 other people helping me on the house and informed them that I had been diagnosed with shingles. Fortunately, the rash was on my stomach and not exposed, but still, I was worried that I had touched it and then touched items that could have been handled by our friends and family.

An update on the course of this thing: The rash is healing, but oh my god the back pain! I took 4 ibuprofin about an hour ago and only now is the pain mellowing a bit. It came on suddenly. The dull aching I had had for the last few days that felt like a simple pulled muscle evolved into a searing, stabbing pain that gripped my side like a vice! It felt like I had a spear pierced right though my entire torso. Fortunately my patient volume has slowed and I can sit down for now.

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crazycatlady
An update on the course of this thing: The rash is healing, but oh my god the back pain! I took 4 ibuprofin about an hour ago and only now is the pain mellowing a bit. It came on suddenly. The dull aching I had had for the last few days that felt like a simple pulled muscle evolved into a searing, stabbing pain that gripped my side like a vice! It felt like I had a spear pierced right though my entire torso. Fortunately my patient volume has slowed and I can sit down for now.

The pain might last awhile. Ice packs helped for me, but you have to be lying down with the cold pressed right to the affected area.

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Dorisan
What makes me shake my head is that chicken pox is treated as such an inconsequential illness by parents. I remember being horribly, horribly sick when I had them as a kid. The itching, the fever. I was almost put into the hospital because my temperature went up so high.

Parents don't project far into the future..

No, breeders don't think. I have also heard that the worse the initial attack of chickenpox, the higher your risk of shingles. Also, if you get chickenpox before 1 or 2, the higher the risk of shingles. I know older people aren't the only ones who get it. I've also remember hearing about teens even getting it. They really should just remove the age limit on the vaccine. If you are willing to pay for it or use your insurance for it, then you should be able to get it.

Even though I've had chickenpox, I was vaccinated for it in my teens. And I'm about to do it again in my 20s just to keep my immunue response to it strong. By the time I'm old enough for the shingles vaccines, I'll just get that. I am a minority so the risk is lower but I am not taking any chances. After all, I don't have brats to guilt into caring for me you know. eyes2

One of the reasons that the UK doesn't vaccinate for cp is because they say that being exposed to brats with chickenpox keeps shingles at bay in adults. Your immunity to varicella zoster gets bosted every time you come into contact with the chickenpox virus (that's why I did the vaccine...not enough sick brats around for me to get around). They say that is why the rate of shingles in younger people is going up. They were born too soon for the vaccine and got chickenpox. But, right after that the vaccine came out and the pool of potential chickenpox victims that they could be around dwindled. They also say that the rate of shingles is higher in households without children for that reason (though I sense that that is just some pronatalist bullshit rearing its head).

Cortisone and acyclovir. I got it once when I was 25. So much for older people.

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From a bottle cap message on a Magic Hat #9 beer: Condoms Prevent Minivans
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I want to pick up a bus full of unruly kids and feed them gummi bears and crack, then turn them loose in Hobby Lobby to ransack the place. They will all be wearing T shirts that say "You Could Have Prevented This."

I may consider getting a chicken pox vaccine in about 5 years and again in another 5 and so on until I can get the shingles one. I see the validity of keeping your immunity up. I probably got a bump in my immunity by contracting shingles now, so I probably have a few years before it would go back down again. I can also see logic in the statement that households with no children could be at a higher risk due to non-exposure.

Sorry you didn't eat them yourself, Snark? Hmm??? lol!

I am doing ok. I still feel sad when I am looking at my pond and feeding the koi now because it feels so empty without those two big guys. I have about 4 baby fish left, so I can still watch them grow and change, but I miss all the other ones and seeing their colors change and develop and see them grow so fast. this is the first year we have had koi, so a lot of learning has gone on. We felt that the pond was such a success because everyone was so healthy and we had had at least 3 seperate flock spawns this summer alone. We had so many babies i was worried we would be too overstocked for our filtration next year. well, we are well within bounds for our filtration capabilities now.... :bawl

I think next year or maybe this year if I can convince my husband to set up the fish tank, I will get three new koi to quarantine. A gin rin asagi (sparkly blue-grey on top, orange on bottom) to replace the one that disappeared right after we got everyone (think a hawk grabbed him, or maybe Snark Shark ate him...) a kikokuryu (scaleless, leathery skinned white koi with black markings like a skeleton) which is what the big guy was, and maybe another that looked like the first guy who died on tues. Not sure what kind he was, but he was mostly white with black rims on his scales and patches of golden yellow on his body. Maybe a ki kujaku. Then, come spring, if there aren't any issues with these guys, I can introduce them to the pond.

I am slowly becoming a pond nerd, and as sad as this situation was, it gives me the opportunity to add new stock to my pond and possibly obtain better quality koi. though I do think that Skeletor ( the 18" kikokuryu) was a better quality koi than the rest, sadly. I have been told by the koi keeping community that it is always the favorite, always the most beautiful, and always the most expensive koi that die/ get eaten first.

Skeletor

Our unnamed ki kujaku is on the right

one more, bigger view of the pond. Sorry, this is turning into a "yard" thread now....

The fish are pretty. I'd keep fish if I could but I have cats. How do you keep the cats away from them?

The cats don't seem to take much interest beyond the occaisional glance. Sometimes they sit on the sides and look at the fish but I think they can tell that there is a big amount of evil, wet water between them and the koi. One cat in particular lingers around the pond area, but he is much more interested in the frogs that sit on the edges too. One of these days, though, one of these days, I would laugh so hard if a cat fell in. I intentionally planted catnip in the center garden between the two waterfalls. We had the falls diverted for a while so we could seal the rock and mortar, so the cats got used to going in the middle to dine on catnip. We may build a little bridge over the waterfall/upper river area so they can still get there. Or maybe we will just make them jump for it... heh heh....

I got shingles when I was 30.

This was during my divorce process. I had been separated from my ex for 10 months and was living on my own. At the time I was planning a trip to Las Vegas and I thought I was doing well, I don't remember being very stressed at the time but maybe I was? I was also excited because I was talking to a guy I was interested in and who had asked me out for after I got back from my vacation, so I remember being not stressed but happy. (He eventually went on to break my heart but that's another story for another day.)

The lymph node in the space where my left leg attaches to my body swelled up like a giant marble, and a large space on my outer left thigh went to sleep. It was really weird and I remember thinking that it was because I was breaking in some new jeans and maybe they were too tight or something?? LOL. Then I got a smattering of weird blisters across my left hip and a tiny cluster on my left butt cheek.

I was lucky, I didn't have tons of pain and they scabbed over and disappeared soon enough; today you wouldn't be able to tell the were there. The blisters were hella itchy though! I used Aveeno Calamine and that was very effective. The doctor gave me antivirals but I didn't even fill the Rx.

YES, younger people do get shingles!! I consider myself lucky that mine were not really a big deal at all and I didn't have any pain. I wonder if I will ever get them again and if they will be as mild if I do. My chicken pox as a kid was VERY bad. Maybe that had something to do with me getting off easy with the shingles.

I am so sorry you lost your pretty fishies. I am glad you found out why and I hope the rest are ok!

I find it interesting that you say you had a bad case of the chicken pox when you were young. I, too apparently had a bad case according to my parents. I don't remember it because I was only 4 or 5 years old. I haven't had any real pain today except first thing this morning, so I feel like it is getting better. It has only been a week and a day since I itched and got the rash. The blisters scabbed over within 2-3 days and most have fallen off at this point. That has been the only itchy part- the healing scabs. I am wondering if that bad case when I was young is why I seem to have gotten off so easily with this, with only a couple days of any REAL pain. Wed and Thurs this week and this morning are really all I have experienced. I guess I will make sure to take note over the next few days if I have any recurrance of pain or if it just fades away completely. I just feel like it was a light case since I have read of some terrible, terrible experiences with pain from having shingles.

One of my uncles got shingles - his case was so painful his girlfriend couldn't touch him and he was off work for months. Doctors even put him on heavy duty painkillers.

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law
One of my uncles got shingles - his case was so painful his girlfriend couldn't touch him and he was off work for months. Doctors even put him on heavy duty painkillers.

I have heard a lot of stories like this. I have even heard about people going blind if they get it on their face and it reaches their eye. After all of the horror stories, no wonder I am keeping my immunity up by getting the cp vax.

When my MS first flared up after diagnosis, I had to take immunosuppressant drugs for the flare up. Then I came down with shingles. I am 24 years old, never had chicken pox but did have the vaccinations before going to college.

I HATE SHINGLES.

I had it on my back really bad. Worst pain I have felt in my life. They put me on Percocet, gabapentin (for nerve pain, aka postherpetic neuralgia), acyclovir, and I used the betamethasone skin cream I get for my eczema when that flares up. The gabapentin didn't help, and they ended up having to do a lidocaine nerve block for the pain. It took two weeks to go away. I honestly don't mind my MS compared to shingles.

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peace-n-quiet

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law
One of my uncles got shingles - his case was so painful his girlfriend couldn't touch him and he was off work for months. Doctors even put him on heavy duty painkillers.

I have heard a lot of stories like this. I have even heard about people going blind if they get it on their face and it reaches their eye. After all of the horror stories, no wonder I am keeping my immunity up by getting the cp vax.

I went to a doc in a box with the flare up because my regular doctor wasn't available. He merely looked at the rash and said "that's shingles" then spoke in a doleful tone about the high rate of suicide among elderly patients who aren't strong enough to deal with the pain. I merely stared at him with deer in the headlights expression and said "uh thanks. can you at least give me something for the pain. My regular physician won't be able to see me until next week." Then I got outa there

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Dorisan

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peace-n-quiet

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law
One of my uncles got shingles - his case was so painful his girlfriend couldn't touch him and he was off work for months. Doctors even put him on heavy duty painkillers.

I have heard a lot of stories like this. I have even heard about people going blind if they get it on their face and it reaches their eye. After all of the horror stories, no wonder I am keeping my immunity up by getting the cp vax.

I went to a doc in a box with the flare up because my regular doctor wasn't available. He merely looked at the rash and said "that's shingles" then spoke in a doleful tone about the high rate of suicide among elderly patients who aren't strong enough to deal with the pain. I merely stared at him with deer in the headlights expression and said "uh thanks. can you at least give me something for the pain. My regular physician won't be able to see me until next week." Then I got outa there

escape.gif

Well wasn't he Mr. Sunshine. eyes2

And I am cracking up about "doc in a box".

Dorisan: My, wasn't THAT reassuring. Good grief.

crazycatlady: How sad about the loss of your fishes. I love koi--there are a whole bunch of them in a nearby very elaborate Chinese restaurant and they are mesmerizing to watch; so beautiful.

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Established tiling methods are for unlambent nonbreathers filled with tiny rage.--CrabCake