OK, Dr. Fluther. What could be the cause of this pain in my side?

Maybe an insect bite? Does it have a central mark of any kind? How big are we talking?

I can’t really see it. It’s maybe 1 inch in diameter. I don’t think there is a central mark. Besides, it seems to be spreading…?

Sounds like a spider bite with an allergic reaction.

Several former Jellies used to cause me to feel the same thing…

Could it be sebaceous cysts? They sometimes don’t come to the surface and are painful and can spread to nearby areas.

Shingles?

I recommend you trace the edge of red area with a ball point pen and if it grows go to the doctor immediately. In fact, since you already think it is spreading and it is painful you should go right away no matter what. I’m afraid it might be cellulitis, which is a serious infection. When I have cellutlitis it grows at about one centimeter every 12 hours, but it can vary of course.

Shingles would start to blister up most likely. Is that happening? When I have shingles it itches like crazy, but some people describe pain.

Is the area swollen? If so I really think doctor today.

If the mosquito bite areas become crusty, my guess would be shingles. I had shingles and it didn’t itch either. I don’t remember swelling though. GO TO A DOCTOR.

@augustlan and bkcunningham win the prize. Give them women some $72.00 Valtrix!

It was shingles? Did they actually culture it? Or, just guess?

He guessed. His concern was Valtrix and other drugs need to be started within 72 hours after the outbreak is noticed. It’s been about a week and half for me. And what Valttrix does has nothing to do with clearing the shingles up. It protects the nerves so that the virus doesn’t go down in the nerves and create some awful pain…for 6 to 12 months. I’m terrified that it’s too late. I’m getting more and more uncomfortable as the days go by. :(

@Dutchess_III – glad you figured it out and sorry it wasn’t something simpler to fix.

Make sure you have a prescription just in case it happens again, you can hit it quick and whoop some virus, uhhh, phage?

@Dutchess_III Don’t be terrified. I have started the meds late. I have gone through entire outbreaks without meds. It wasn’t a very large area you described, It has a good chance of being fine. If it reoccurs there then you can be pretty sure his diagnosis was right. Next time you could run in for a culture to confirm if you want to bother.

Hope the medicine works, @Dutchess_III! Shingles sucks.

Yeah they suck Auggie! It does actually seem to be helping guys. What kind of frustrates me is apparently if you’re 50 or older you “qualify” for a shingles vaccine. I can’t get it now, I have to wait til it clears up, but I sure wish I’d known about it before. (I also wonder what the 50+ point is?)

You guys, I feel so good today. Not of that “OMG I’m starving and have to eat NOW!” feeling. I have some energy now. Could the shingles have caused all of that?

For sure could be related to the shingles. Shingles suck.

Yeah they do. But chocolate chips don’t. Which is why I am eating them now, with a glass of cold milk! Wait…have to read the ingredients….OMG!! THEY HAVE SUGAR IN THEM! I’m going to sue somebody as soon as I’m done eating them.

Yeah, Shingles will wear your ass out. I’m glad you’re feeling better!

PS: I think that ‘vaccine over 50 years old’ thing is because mostly older people are affected by Shingles. Which I question, since at least three of us in this thread had it younger than 50. I first had it when I was in my thirties.

You can get the vaccine younger, you just need a script for it. The vaccine is about 50% effective. I don’t want to get it (I have had three outbreaks in the last 12 months!) but if my outbreaks were on my face or very large areas I would consider it.

I also think there are many many people who get shingles at young ages. I think it gets misdiagnosed probably some of the time, my first outbreak was, and possibly some people never go to the doctor for it depending on how severe it is or if they have insurance.

What I have noticed is people who get outbreaks starting at a young age seem to get recurrent outbreaks.

The shingles came out in me when I was in my early 40s. It was an extremely stressful time in my life which contributed to the outbreak. I haven’t had them reoccur. I have not and will not take the vaccine.

My oldest sister and youngest brother both had severe outbreaks of shingles. My sister was in her 40s and my brother was in his 30s. I have an elderly aunt who lost her sight in one eye from shingles. All three, young and old, have had shingles reoccur.

I think the pain depends on the location as well as how well the person handles the pain. I’m glad you are handling the pain and doing well, @Dutchess_III.

Yes, I have a high pain threshold @bkcunningham. Sometimes people ask me, “On a scale of 1 -10, how bad does it hurt?”
I just have to shake my head cause they’re asking a woman who gave birth to 2 babies without so much as an aspirin to help with the pain! So, if I used that as my 10, a broken leg would be a 1!

Anyway, the pain was only bad intermittently, but when it was there I’d have given it a 7. Fortunately it only lasted a split second.

I plan to get the vaccine when this outbreak is finished. I don’t want to go blind or wind up with the virus in my brain!

@JLeslie and @bkcunningham, why don’t you two want the vaccine? I’m undecided as of yet, but may get it.

I was wondering the same thing @augustlan.

@augustlan I tend to be a little against vaccines for myself when the payoff isn’t big enough, I also look at if it is a new vaccine, and how effective it is. So, to be clear, I would give my kids vaccine for tetanus and measles and whooping cough, and most of the biggies. The efficacy is excellent, risks low enough, and the diseases can be quite bad. Shingles vaccine is said to be 50% effective. I don’t think it has been around very long, but I am not sure how long. Adverse effects are always, always, underreported for vaccines. My mom just called me a week ago by coincidence to look up adverse reactions because she doesn’t use a computer herself, and a friend of hers is trying to figure out if his neuritis started when he got the vaccine. He called my mom because she used to work in vaccinations at FDA, she collected and compiled the data for adverse reactions, but I guess either she did not remember info for that vaccine, or it wasn’t around when she worked there.

If the shingles was near my eye I would get the vaccine. As @bkcunningham mentioned it can cause blindness, which scares me enough that when I have an outbreak I am very careful to wash my hands it I happen to touch the area, and I am careful with my towel when I dry off after a shower. They say shingles does not autoinoculate like other herpes, but I rather be safe than sorry. If my outbreaks were very painful with bad neuralgia for months, I also would consider taking the vaccine.

I don’t have some big warning to give you about it, I just know I personally don’t like to put any drugs in my body unless I really feel it is warranted. I also had a bad reaction to my last tetanus shot, I have never had a bad reaction to any vaccine before, and so I am more skiddish because of it. I don’t trust doctors regarding vaccines, I always encourage people to do research themselves for the vaccines that are what I would call optional. I have never met a doctor who has ever said don’t take a vaccine, or even said let’s wait a week when your cold is done, or never ever have I met a doctor who said let’s check your titer before giving a repeat vaccine.

Edit: I am pretty sure it is made from attenuated virus, so people with autoimmune diseases or on drugs that suppress the immune system probably should not take it. Check the warning for the drugs yourself, do not trust a doctor to do it. Don’t trust me either, this is out of half a—ed memory. I really have not read up on who should not take it. If you have hashimoto’s that might be a consideration. Psoriasis, Sjogren’s, Lupus, etc. I just name those because they are such popular ones.

I was diagnosed with shingles when I was 20 and I’ve been living with it for 22 years now. A daily dose of Valtrex keeps my outbreaks to a minimum. I would get 4 or 5 outbreaks a year when I didn’t take a daily Valtrex, now I usually just get one outbreak a year. I don’t want to jinx myself, but I’ve been outbreak free the entire year.

@jonsblond Did I tell you I am seeing a big relationship to when I cheat and drink caffeine to when I have outbreaks?

@JLeslie I can’t remember if you did or not. I have a terrible memory.

@JLeslie I’ve got several auto-immune diseases, so I’ll definitely do some research before deciding to get the vaccine.

@JLeslie But if the shingles are near your eye it is too late for the vaccine. And I don’t know if they even have to be near your eyes, or if they travel along a nerve and wind up there.

@Dutchess_III I am no expert on it honestly. Some medical things I feel very sure about, and even fight off jellies when they harras me for giving medical information, because I feel stringky my information might be helpful. As far as shingles, I really do not know much, which is why I readily told @auggie to not trust my information. I am of the thought that shingles typically stays in the same area and doesn’t spread. But, I guess maybe the outbreak could happen anywhere on the body in the future? It’s a good point, I really don’t know. Great question.

True that the vaccine if effective could ward of an outbreak that could harm your eye, what I don’t know is if someone already had an outbreak if they don’t have to worry about their eye if they had the outbreak somewhere else.

Flippin’ varicela. I wonder why I am so suceptible to outbreaks? No one else in my family has ever had shingles that I know of.

I’m pretty sure that when you’re talking about an external outbreak, it does stay on a certain part of the body. The danger comes in when it (rarely) starts traveling in the nerves. It can land who-knows-where after that. It can attack your brain. Again, my doctor said that’s rare…but it’s there. And where is Rare bear when you need him near? (And that isn’t quite rhyming like I thought it would!)

Shingles is alway along the nerve.

Right…but how far up the nerve, to different parts of the body can it travel?

I assume it can travel across any nerve. We have nerve and nerve branches throughout our entire body. I don’t know how the virus chooses which nerve. It wouldn’t be that it travels up the nerve from your side to your eye I don’t think. I think the question would be how common is it to have a new set of nerves to also start triggering the outbreaks.

We do need rarebear on this one. Did you send the Q to him?

Any dermatome.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=645069

Shingles is a painful condition caused by the virus that also causes chickenpox (varicella-zoster virus , or VZV). It affects about 1 million individuals per year in the United States alone. Shingles, also known as herpes zoster , occurs in persons who have already had chickenpox. Most individuals who develop shingles are older than 50 years, have other medical problems (such as cancer), or are immune-suppressed from medications they take (such as steroid medications). The virus (VZV) causing shingles and chickenpox is a type of herpes virus. It is a different herpes virus from the ones responsible for cold sores or for genital herpes. VZV remains in nerve tissue after a person recovers from chickenpox. The virus remains dormant (inactive) until reactivated to cause shingles. The cause of this reactivation is not completely understood. The January 12, 2011, issue of JAMA includes an article about shingles. This Patient Page is based on one previously published in the July 1, 2009, issue of JAMA.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
Rash on one side of the body or the face

Blisters that develop in the rash site and then crust over

Pain, often a tingling-type pain, can occur before the rash appears.

Fever, headache, fatigue, and chills may occur.

Dermatome.

@Rarebear Thanks. I have never even heard of that. Do you know how common it is for someone who has had outbreaks to get a new outbreak in a new location?

@bkcunninghan I really think the number is way underreported yearly. I know on my doctor’s records for me my amount of outbreaks are underreported. I don’t tell the doctor every time I have it.

@Rarebear So the nerves aren’t inter-related to a greater or lesser degree across the whole body? If they are, then to what extent? How would you end up with the virus in your eyes or in your brain? Where would the outbreak have to occur for that to happen?

It is where the chicken pox virus lives dormant in your body, @Dutchess_III.

My first and second outbreak was on my leg. After that I started getting them on my chest and the back of my left arm. The majority of my outbreaks have been in these two locations, but I have had a few outbreaks on my lower back and the back of my head the past ten years.

I have no idea if this is common.

@bkcunningham It lies dormant in the nerve axons. The axons are are a part of a nerve. Nerves are connected to other nerves and other nerve axons. The question is, when the virus decides to go commando on you, can they travel from the specific axon where they’ve been hiding, up into other nerves and hide out in other axons?

From @jonsblond‘s description above, I would suggest the answer is “Yes.”

From what I’ve read and heard and discussed with people who have had shingles the answer is that is isn’t common for it to move outside the band where the outbreak occurs or from one side of the body to the other, @Dutchess_III. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/shingles/detail_shingles.htm

Right. It isn’t common. My Dr told me that. But it’s possible.

Why do I always get the short end of the stick. aren’t I the lucky one~ :P

Me too @jonsblond!

Dutch, in answer to your other questions, I’m not sure. I do know that if it gets near the eye it’s very dangerous and needs to be taken very seriously.