It’s possible the universe is saving all the nice for this week’s trip to Florida. It will be sunny and blue, not a cloud in sight, all the relatives getting along and having interesting things to say to each other. No panic attacks or rare diseases whatsits.
Here and now, my brother has shingles. He’s seventeen and got his childhood chicken pox from other toddlers and somehow he still has shingles. He’s having trouble sleeping at night from the itching, and the doctor says he’s contagious and he’d like some tips and commiseration from be-shingled others.
There are anti-virals for this that will work if he gets them right away. He has my sympathy. It’s a tough disease.
I had it a couple years ago, and it’s agony. I got pain meds that essentially knocked me out for a week. I think that was the only way I got through it.
Put 'em back up on the roof where they belong.
Your brother is suranyi?
Nope, we’re not related.
As was said, pain meds, and antivirals are the way to go. Antivirals should start ASAP for best results.
You guys know I just went through it.
I had a case of shingles a few months ago. I started taking an antiviral medication a couple of days after the rash started, and after a few days the outbreak stopped spreading. It was painful and annoying, but by far not the worst pain I’ve ever had. My biggest fear was that I had visited my next-door neighbor a day before the first symptoms showed up, and she was pregnant. Fortunately, she had already had chicken pox and so the exposure didn’t endanger the pregancy.
I hadn’t even noticed noticed that thread. Must be Shingle Season around here or something.
He seems to be okay. It’s apparently a milder case. So far the biggest impact in his life is that he’s doubly forbidden to beat up Little Brother- but he can have fun threatning to touch LB, and so hostilities are back on.
How long is it contagious for? I’m thinking here… family trip on Thurs or Fri, relatively mild symptoms, only seem to reall bother him when he’s trying to sleep… do you think he’ll be able to go south with us? I mean, I was worried I was going to be the one staying behind for health reasons, it’s no fair if he does.
You should probably ask a doctor how long he should worry about being contagious, but my impression was that he’s only contagious to people who haven’t had chickenpox and that the time period is probably similar. On the other hand, I don’t know how long the vaccine is good for, so he should probably exercise care around those people.
This WebMD article says to avoid contact with people of unknown immunity until the rash heals, which IIRC is similar to how you deal with chickenpox.