......Are you sure it’s shingles? Have you contacted your physician?
Originally posted by harllee
Telly, shingles normally is only on one side of the body and normally only in one area. From your description it sounds like it is more spread out. You need to go to a doctor to see if it is actually shingles. If you are having trouble sleeping because of the rash, Gabepentine helped me--it is by prescription.
I'm sure it's Shingles. There is a classic pic on I think it was the CDC website, that has been copied by some others. I no longer have a PCP, as the practice I used to go to has been bought by a practice aggregator. Who instituted new rules in the chain they assembled - Medicare only if you are in one of 3 MA plans that they have agreements with... no other Medicare allowed. Since then, I've had my eye on an urgent care place near me, but they are now closed to patients, they are doing Covid-19 testing by appt. only, nothing else. If for some reason I get desperate, I can go to some other urgent care place, not sure about quality of results. Since I was about 15, I have diagnosed myself, and knew what drug should be prescribed for me, if applicable. I am very very low-maintenance.
What I have found researching online about Shingles is in most cases the same phrases parroted over and over site to site. Some, the laughable ones, describe Shingles as being in a band on one side of your chest/abdomen, THAT is where Shingles are! Yeah right! And the "one side" issue is being overplayed and repeated all over.
I did finally find one that said Shingles is "usually on one side, but may also affect arms and legs" and can be across multiple dermatomes (nerves), instead of this "only one nerve" business that is parroted. I also found one reference that said it can last 2 to 4 weeks, another went out to 6 weeks possible.
One made reference, via the concern about spreading the virus to others not protected, that some blisters can be scaling over and becoming non-contagious, while other blisters may be appearing new and are contagious. That was the only reference to it being an on-going production of blisters for a while, while others are sealing over. All the other sites act like you have these blisters all of a sudden in a group, they all age together, then they start to disappear all together, all in marked phases, no overlap, which made no sense to me!
I did find a dermatome chart, of which I could plot my areas as being on C4/C5, and then one blister each on T11 and L5 that have not had any others join them there.
https://www.emedicinehealth.com/dermatomes/article_em.htm
I suspect the Shingles info on most of the websites, with regard to the patient experience, is out of an old textbook, maybe from the 1940s