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In reply to the discussion: Public DU Service announcement to older DUers - get your damn Shingles vaccinations!!! [View all]rainbow4321
(9,974 posts)Worst pain ever. It started with what looked like a dry patch on my eyelid. Noticed it when I was putting eye shadow on. Didn't think much of it til the next few days it felt like something was moving or tingling on that area. Being a nurse my first thought was..crap, this may be shingles.
Patch got bigger, lesions started to form and open.
I was off work for a week, my eye swelled shut, the shingles spread from the eyelid to INside my eye, top of my head, the bridge of my nose.
Had to go on oral and eye drop Valtrex, Lortab, and then I asked for Gabapentin once the lesions dried up but the neuropathy (nerve) pain continued. Was on Gabapentin for three months, I think.
I still have scar tissue IN my eye from the shingles that had spread to my eye. I was damn lucky that I didn't lose my vision. Even when the lesions dried up, I felt more comfortable just leaving the affected eyelid closed because it was a chore to keep my eye open. But I knew if I gave in to the more comfortable feeling of leaving it closed I ran the risk of the eye lid muscle and the actual eye muscles getting weak and possible losing muscle and nerve function so I forced myself to keep the ey open.
The head pain----oh my gosh..couldn't even be described as a headache---was incapacitating. To the point where even just hearing my daughter put her car keys on the kitchen counter in another room sent shivers thru my head and body. Taking a single Lortab only took the edge off of the pain, enough to let me get out of bed for a little bit.
The worst of the post shingles neuropathy lasted a good month. Even now, three yrs after the initial outbreak, I still get the occassional tingling/numb feeling around my eye.