First two weeks of this year were spent coughing and sneezing with a terrible head cold......a major snot factory ! It eased off a little over the last weekend but by Sunday night I was getting pain so severe on the left side of my diaphragm that I went down to A & E on Monday morning to let them have a look at me. I was fairly quickly seen but no conclusion was arrived at other than to get some Ibruprofen and dose meself up....bad advice, the doc noticed the beginnings of a rash on the left side of my magnificent torso but didn't know what it was even though SWM suggested shingles to him !
Went to my GP today, and Mike confirmed it, told me to come off the Profen.....it wasn't suitable with my ace inhibitors and prescribed a course of 5 a day tablets, which I'm now on. Co-Dydramol, which I'm already on, but a quadrupled dose for the pain
Any tips from anyone on here who's been a sufferer ?
Copious amounts of malt whiskey and chocolate ?
Rub the rash with half a potato and bury the other half in a graveyard at midnight ?
Any advice welcome.
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Germolene for rashes. Works like a charm
Last edited by: madf on Thu 21 Jan 16 at 17:17
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If it is shingles, you have my sympathy.
I had it decades ago on my head and neck and was prescribed a painkiller that's no longer available - wife found me in the local park chatting to a stranger who realised something was wrong and kept me there until a 'responsible adult' appeared - cancelled the 999 call.
Good news is, they'll love all the antibodies in your blood at the next donor session.
ps. At your age shouldn't you have had the jab?
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Co-Codamol for my knee pain. Co-Drydomal didnt cut it.
If it's Shingles you have my sympathy too.
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We were both summoned for the shingles jab last autumn, the flu jabs had arrived at the doctors that morning so we both left with two sore arms.
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The acute pain will last for 10-14 days as the rash flares and recedes.
If you are lucky that will be it.
As you are (a bit) over 50, however, there is a risk of developing 'post herpetic neuralgia' which is persistent pain at the site of the shingles despite the rash clearing.
This can go on for weeks/months/eternity and there are various medications that can help with it (your GP can advise if necessary).
The doc who failed to diagnose despite SWM suggesting it needs a punch in the face.
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I've never had shingles, though I know plenty who have - you have my sympathy, Ted.
Couple of questions for Lygo, if I may .....
Is it the usual thing for shingles rash to be preceded by cold-like symptoms and, is the shingles jab rated as being reasonably effective?
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>>Is it the usual thing for shingles rash to be preceded by cold-like symptoms
I don't think so, at least directly - you are more likely to get shingles if you are run down, eg have just had another infection. The usual early warning sign is pain 2-3 days before the rash appears - usually the area will be uncomfortable to touch - it is almost always only sore on one side of the body.
>> is the shingles jab rated as being reasonably effective?
I hope so as it isn't cheap (although I'm sure the NHS gets a chunky discount for bulk purchase) - apparently it reduces both likelihood of developing shingles, and also the severity and duration if you do get it.
I'm not aware of any precise figures though.
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But first you have to figure out if you qualify:
Who can have the shingles vaccination?
From September 1 2015 the shingles vaccine is routinely available to people aged 70 and 78. You become eligible for the vaccine on the first day of September 2015 after you've turned 70 or 78 and remain so until the last day of August 2016.
In addition, anyone who was eligible for immunisation in the first two years of the programme but has not yet been vaccinated against shingles remains eligible until their 80th birthday. This includes:
people aged 71 and 72 on 1 September 2015
people aged 79
The shingles vaccine is not available on the NHS if you are aged 80 or over.
You can have the shingles vaccination at any time of year, though many people will find it convenient to have it at the same time as their annual flu vaccination.
From the NHS site
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Yeah, this is the result of there not being enough vaccine to cover everyone from 70-80 in one year - they started with 70 and 79 yr olds and have been doing a bit of catch-up each year since.
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Thanks to Lygo & CG for the information.
It's nearly 30 years since my wife went down with 'reactive arthritis' (Reiter's Syndrome) - that was preceded by a flu-like illness which we assumed had probably upset her immune system.
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I have no advice, sorry. But you do have my sympathy.
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My sympathy too Ted.
I got shingles many years ago after fracturing a vertebra. Developed in my left ear and resulted in Bell's Palsy (paralysis of facial muscles). Quack said mine was caused by Chicken Pox virus laying dormant in the spine and getting upset when I disturbed it.
Plenty of painkillers and then referred to a specialist who put me on steroids as well. It took about a week for the pain to go and probably another couple of months for the Palsy to disappear.
Looked like a pirate for a while, having to wear an eye patch because I couldn't blink properly or close my eye.
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>Not so much a pirate - more of a Ramsay Hunt.
Oh dear.
I thought my quack was using rhyming slang when he called me that.
That describes my symptoms to a T though. Good diagnosis doc.
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I had Non-Symptomatic Shingles (pains and no rash and feeling crap) in 2011. I was working on the census collection at the time and worked through it. I had a minor recurrence recently. Ive been lucky. Hope it never comes back. No advice only sympathy.
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>> Looked like a pirate for a while, having to wear an eye patch because I
>> couldn't blink properly or close my eye.
Did they put you in the Linux line of business with all the other weirdoes?
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>Did they put you in the Linux line of business with all the other weirdoes?
Of course they did. Where else would they put someone with an eye patch, half a droopy face and who talked out of one side of their mouth?
I'm lucky though - I escaped. Some are still being held captive in the loft at Hursley House.
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...they'll be the ones still wearing the blue suits, then?
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>> ...they'll be the ones still wearing the blue suits, then?
They were blue suit exempt. No socks and sandals was the uniform down there,.
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I had chicken pox really, really bad when I was 37, thought I was gonna die. Called the doc in (waste of thyme)
I ended up using calamine lotion externally and rum (copious amounts) internally. I'd do the same with shingles, unless they were roofing shingles.
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Prickly heat rash can get very nasty. I think children get it more than adults.
I sympathize of course with all you ageing cats with your rashes and aches and pains. Comes to us all that stuff.
A nineteenth-century quack would have diagnosed it as Marthambles and given us all some horrible, perhaps harmful, medicine.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Thu 21 Jan 16 at 20:13
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Nowt wrong with a few mercury enemas.
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...how you pass your weekends should remain your own private business...
;-)
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Howls about a phew coffee enemas.
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Talking of enemas........I've chucked out my codeine as a couple of days using it means I would welcome an enema!
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_smoke_enema
Quackery almost (but not quite) up there with Homeopathy!
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I was just three months too young to have the Shingles ejaculation...not that I knew it existed, or that I was going to get the plague.
I rather like Perro's rum idea. I've taken me tablets today and put a little E45 on the rash...don't know if it'll do anything but it's all I've got in..apart from stuff in the workshop. I shall have to crawl under my electric bed tomorrow to retrieve the plug and handset which are tie-wrapped to the motor........I fancy it's a bit better sitting up a bit to sleep.
I've got a lot to do but I'll relax 'til Monday....nothin's too urgent. Thanks for all the replies guys.
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>>apart from stuff in the workshop.
...I don't think Castrol XL is a good idea.....
You have my sympathy, and wishes for a speedy recovery.
Our next-door-but-one neighbour is a feisty 4ft something 90 year old (she's been a good, long-term friend, and we keep an eye out for her). Just before we headed off on holiday in September (actually on the day we left) she was ailing with something, so we tipped the (remote) family off.
Turned out it was shingles, which really flattened her, and though the main symptoms have now disappeared, she is still in pain (presumably the neuralgia Lygo mentions).
She's currently in a home, and it looks like it has brought about the end of her independence (given the advancing symptoms of dementia, this was coming anyway, but a great pity).
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I've had three bouts of shingles but little pain. Two were normal skin rashes but the third was in the form of a small, half-deflated ball at the top of my nose, which subsided over the days and had no attendant rash.
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You lucky guy, Ambo.
I took my last tablet of the day about 2300 and turned in half an hour later with no major discomfort. I woke in some pain about 0400, took another plus 2 co-dydramol and went and made a cup of tea. Half an hour or so on the PC and I felt ready to sleep.
Seems the tablets last about 5 hours...hence the 'one five times a day'. I can space them out now I know. Next one due about 1430, with 2 painkillers.
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Sorry to hear of your problems, Ted - hope they're over soon.
I was with my GP the other day with a rather embarrassing fungal infection and was offered the shingles jab. Never knew it existed, still less it was on offer - rather like the pneumonia vaccine I was offered some time ago. But I'm all in favour of having these things, so I said yes straightaway.
I absolutely hate needles (the prospect of a blood test makes me break out in a sweat), but this was as smooth as could be, and no discomfort in the arm afterwards.
I do realise shingles (which my grandfather had when I was a child) can be very, very painful.
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>> I was with my GP the other day with a rather embarrassing fungal infection
Cavalier?
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I knew someone would bite...
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>> I knew someone would bite...
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Send him a sample.
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>> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_smoke_enema
Ah, the tobacco clyster, that standby of the Victorian physician, more effective when accompanied by plentiful doses of rhubarb and other treatments for the constipation so frequent with middle-class Victorian diets...
Got an old copy of the Practical Home Doctor somewhere, with a terrifying engraving of the clyster kit. The very sight of the thing was enough to give you the squits.
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Caught a dose.... - madf
