Shingles is not fatal but can have a significant impact on daily life. I have never felt such a strange type of pain in my life. The incubation period until a definitive conclusion is reached is very difficult to predict. Only when the sores appear can the cause be concluded.
A. Pain caused by shingles
Shingles is a disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which is the virus that causes chickenpox. After recovering from chickenpox, the virus remains in the body and can recur into shingles. Shingles often causes pain, numbness, itching, blisters on one side of the body. The disease can last from 2-4 weeks and can leave complications such as nerve pain, body weakness.
On Friday, I felt numbness in the right half of my head and neck. Since I had to sit in front of the computer for a long time at work, I thought it was caused by cervical spondylosis.
On Sunday, the pain reached its peak. The cervical spondylosis pain was not significant, but the prickling sensation on the scalp was more worrying.
Every time I put my hand on my hair, I felt a tingling sensation like hundreds of needles piercing my skin. The pain ran down the neck and I often felt a current running across my scalp.
This type of pain is the first I have ever experienced. It is very strange, the pain is deep inside the skin and there are no external manifestations. This characteristic makes it difficult to diagnose the cause of the disease.
B. Acupuncture and shingles detection
1. Go to the doctor for shoulder pain
At first, I thought I had a neck pain because I felt numbness on my skin and I had to sit for a long time at work.
On Sunday, I went to a traditional Chinese medicine clinic for a check-up. The doctors used acupuncture and my shoulders and hands stopped hurting. However, the numbness on my head did not improve.
On Monday morning, I went to a traditional Chinese medicine hospital. The X-ray results showed that I had grade 6 cervical spondylosis, which is a mild condition. I decided to receive outpatient treatment at the hospital. The quality of the treatment is high and I am covered by 80% of the cost by my health insurance.
2. Hospitalization procedure
My health insurance is provided by my company. My default place of treatment is at a different hospital (called A). If I want to receive outpatient treatment at a traditional Chinese medicine hospital, I need to get a referral from hospital A. My cousin works at A, so she helped me with the procedure.
On Monday afternoon, I started treatment at the traditional Chinese medicine hospital. The paperwork here is very quick and simple.
3. Nerve development
Acupuncture and other procedures were generally very good. Each treatment session took about 2 hours. Due to outpatient treatment, I asked the company to let me go home 2 hours early.
A major change occurred on Wednesday morning. My colleagues saw red spots on my head that morning. So my father presented to the doctors and was diagnosed with shingles. When I looked into the symptoms and compared the development and pain sensation, it was very fitting.
The doctors still allowed me to treat my neck and shoulders in parallel with shingles. But shingles will not be covered by health insurance (If treated at hospital A, it will be waived).
The next day, I decided to discharge myself from the hospital. I took antibiotics at home to treat shingles and stopped treating neck and shoulder pain.
C. The process of treating shingles at home
When you have shingles, you only need to go to the hospital if the condition is too severe or has serious complications. If you detect it early and take good care of yourself, you can stay at home and take and apply Acyclovir-containing medication every 4 hours.
To make it more convenient, I decided to cut my hair short. It both relieved the itch and made it easier to apply the medication. I have to admit that the pain decreased quickly thanks to the correct treatment. The red spots dried up faster and I was less inconvenienced in my daily life.
However, I still took a day off from work on Friday, because wearing a helmet when riding a motorbike caused a lot of pain. Moreover, it broke a few swollen spots and caused the wound to spread. On that day, my daughter went to school and my wife was at home to help me apply the medication.
1. Early stage treatment
The treatment for shingles is a combination of taking the antiviral drug Acyclovir 800mg and applying a cream containing Acyclovir every 4 hours. This is because the drug is most effective when the concentration of the drug in the body is always maintained at a stable level.
It is strange that in the process of finding out, I found that some places recommend that “Do not use the topical form of the drug because it is not effective” … While the hospital’s prescription still contains the cream form???
In addition, I was given a bottle of Methylene Blue. It has a mild antibacterial effect and when the pimples burst, they will dry quickly and prevent the spread. But nowadays, this is an old method, this type of drug has a blue color, sticks to the skin, causing unsightly and the sterilization effect is not really strong. Instead, I bought a tube of Dizigone Nano Silver cream, which is quite expensive, but has better effect, more aesthetic, and supports scar treatment.
My wife is very supportive of the treatment process. On the days when my wife is off work, she helps me apply the medicine on time. But on the days when she goes to work, I apply it myself.
After 2 days of treatment, the symptoms have improved significantly. The tingling sensation has decreased significantly, the blisters have dried up and closed. When I am writing this line, it is the 7th day since I took the medicine. According to the schedule, there are still 3 days to go before the end of the treatment.
2. Post-treatment
When I looked into the information, I learned that shingles often leaves a sequel. Usually, the complications only appear after more than 1 month.
- Neuralgia: This is the most common complication of shingles, and it can last from several months to several years. Neuralgia can cause pain, numbness, burning, and tingling in the area of the skin affected by shingles.
- Fatigue: Shingles can cause fatigue, loss of appetite, insomnia, and weight loss.
- Mental disorders: Shingles can cause anxiety, depression, and stress.
- Conjunctivitis: Conjunctivitis is a rare complication of shingles, and it can cause eye pain, redness, tearing, and swelling.
- Encephalitis: Encephalitis is a very rare complication of shingles, and it can cause fever, headache, stiff neck, seizures, and coma.
I have been experiencing a tingling and electric shock sensation during the rash phase. I don’t know what will happen after the scars heal!
Some documents said that if you take and apply the medicine within 24 hours after the rash, it will help to reduce many of the complications mentioned above.
3. The sequelae after 4 months of illness
In fact, after only 1 week of complete treatment, the complication of sensory disturbance appeared. The scalp is now quite sensitive, and there is a tingling sensation when touched. After 4 months, it did not return to normal, the nerve endings were destroyed and could not be recovered.
My colleague also had shingles a few years ago. The affected skin was also numb and had sensory disturbances. She sometimes had to go to acupuncture to relieve the discomfort.
