Who has suffered from shingles and how bad was it?

1. 81

   elayne001posted 11 years ago

   Who has suffered from shingles and how bad was it?
   
   I am just getting over shingles, and it is very painful and debilitating. What is your experience or someone you love.

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2. 80

   JayeWisdomposted 11 years ago

   One of my grandmothers had shingles in her 70s, and, though I was a child at the time, recall her moaning with pain.
   
   Fast forward several decades to the day I watched my five-year-old granddaughter suffer the miseries of shingles. The doctor said her exposure to a child with chicken pox caused the attack of shingles because her own case of chicken pox a year earlier had been very light. (The virus that causes chicken pox may be reactivated as shingles in the young, old or anyone with poor immune systems.)  Most people don't realize that children and adults can get shingles from exposure to chicken pox.
   
   An even worse fact about shingles is that the virus hibernates in the sufferer's nervous system and can reoccur. I don't know if the shingles vaccine will help you at this point, Elayne, but you may want to ask your doctor if it will prevent reoccurrence. Older people are encouraged to be vaccinated against this painful virus, and I've already done so.
   
   Best wishes,
   Jaye

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3. 60

   freefoggingposted 11 years ago

   I have never had shingles, but am a nurse (geriatrics) and have seen the elderly, especially suffer with shingles...they have all dais it is the most painful thing they have ever had to live with...very painful...This is because it injures your nerves (runs along nerve channels)...nerve pain is what they are feeling..nerve pain is a very painful type of pain..

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4. 60

   duffsmomposted 11 years ago

   My husband had shingles 18 months ago and he was miserable. And now he is left with post herpetic nerve pain down one leg, and often on pain meds. He thinks the pain is getting better.  My daughter had it and my son-in-law but I think because they were younger they didn't have as bad a reaction as he did.

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