Shingles

[Carol]

I've just had a mild case of the shingles. It was only on one side of my face and in my hair line. I was put on antivirals (no side affects) and it seemed to settle down quite quickly. I still get a mild tingling in my scalp so am hoping that it is all virtually over. I read somewhere on the internet is quite common with WG's. Has anyone else had it too?Can I get it again?

[crackers]

hi carol.i had a really bad attack of shingles 3 months before being diagnosed with wg.the docs believed the two were related as stress is involved with both.i'm sorry to say you can have it again as that was not my first attack.
john.

[Doug]

Yes it is, yes I have, and yes you can! I still have to take Gabapentin four times a day (600mg x 4) and Cymbalta (60mg, with my last dose of Gabepentin). I have facial scarring that I can live with (as if there's a choice!) and some around my mouth that will require plastic surgery to reduce. The postherpetic neuralgia in my scalp, at one point, was so severe that I'd almost cry from the pain of shower water striking it! Now, I have unpleasantness when it hits, but it isn't unbearable. At one point, I had to go to Denver, Colorado, for oral surgery and check-ups. I couldn't drive without getting stressed out, especially around Denver, and that would set off a pain attack so bad I had to ask others to drive me down and back. Incidentally, I'm on record as one of only forty people ever to suffer necrosis of the mandible (right side in my case) due to shingles, but I think the WG contributed to it. Sounds like a no brainer, actually, though the oral surgeons and my dentist (who all talked with my weggie specialists when I recommended they do so) still insist it was the shingles. The oral surgeons, incidentally, had to remove a bit over 50% of the thickness of my mandible on the right side to remove the dead bone.