Do I have shingles?

Question

I have a small rash near my left hip and a small lump in my lymph node near my groin. My rash dosn't hurt, it feels like a bug bit. The small lump in my groin, howerver, is tender to the touch. About four or five days after I found the bumps I got a seiously sick. Sever chills, heart palpatations, dizztness, and uncontrolable sweating, general acheness and my kidnies were sore. My doctor told me I had shingles, but my rash never hurt, it itched. I read up on Shingles, and my symptoms just don't seem to match. Do I have shingels or something else?

Answer 1

Facts About Shingles (Herpes Zoster)
WHAT IS SHINGLES?
Shingles is a disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. After an attack of chickenpox, the virus lies dormant in the nerve tissue. As we get older, it is possible for the virus to reappear in the form of shingles. Shingles is estimated to affect 2 in every 10 people in their lifetime. This year, more than 500,000 people will develop shingles. Fortunately, scientists are doing research to find a vaccine to prevent the disease.

WHO IS AT RISK FOR DEVELOPING SHINGLES?

Although it is most common in people over age 50, if you have had chickenpox, you are at risk for developing shingles. Shingles is also more common in people with weakened immune systems from HIV infection, chemotherapy or radiation treatment, transplant operations, and stress.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF SHINGLES?

Early signs of shingles include burning or shooting pain and tingling or itching generally located on one side of the body or face. The pain can be severe. Rash or blisters are present anywhere from 1 to 14 days.

ARE OTHER COMPLICATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH SHINGLES?

Yes. If shingles appears on your face, it can lead to complications in your hearing and vision. For instance, if shingles affects your eye, the cornea can become infected and lead to temporary or permanent blindness. Another complication of the virus is postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), a condition where the pain from shingles persists for months, sometimes years, after the shingles rash has healed.

IS THERE A CURE OR TREATMENT FOR SHINGLES?

There is no cure for shingles, but the severity and duration of an attack of shingles can be significantly reduced if you are treated immediately with antiviral drugs, which include acyclovir, valacyclovir, or famcyclovir. Antiviral drugs may also help stave off the painful
after-effects of PHN. Other treatments for PHN include painkillers, steroids, antidepressants, and antiseizure medicine.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and other institutes of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) conduct shingles research in NIH laboratories and support additional research through grants to major medical institutions across the country. Current research is aimed at finding new methods for treating shingles and its complications.

IS THERE A VACCINE TO PREVENT SHINGLES?

In May 2006, the Food and Drug Administration approved use of a vaccine to prevent shingles. The vaccine, called Zostavax, is recommended for people 60 years of age and older who have had chickenpox but who have not had shingles. Researchers estimate the vaccine could prevent 250,000 cases of shingles that occur in the United States each year and significantly reduce the severity of the disease in another 250,000 cases annually.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I had shingles for the first time when I was 8, and then kept on getting them (I'm kinda sickly, haha!) The stuff inside the blisters can cause other people to get shingles if they touch it. Keep your shingles covered up. Try not to scratch them incase it gets on your fingertips and you forget to wash them. If it itches or stings, lay your hand on a cold hard surface and it will help. Shingles are like 'adult chicken pox'. If you have had chicken pox once, you never do again - but you can get shingles. You get them due to stress sometimes which messes up your immune system. Keep it covered. Notify your neices mother and your friend, but they will most likely me alright unless they touched the blisters! But remember to keep a little distance from them until the shingles begin to heal. Hope they disappear soon!

Answer 4

crystalrabbit7, you have it backwards. You need to have had chickenpox previously in order to get shingles.


As for the question, I'd see another doctor just for a second opinion. It could well be shingles, and it may not hurt much at all (or may start to hurt in the next week(s), but I'd check with another one just in case.

Answer 5

I had a rash on my lower leg that began to band...the papules were reddish purple and sensitive to the touch. Relief came only when I soaked in a hot tub long enough to express them (yes, gross i know, but truth).

The docs didn't know what it was....I also had ringworm of the hair follicle as well as shingles. I didn't get sick with the other symptoms until a couple of months later, I was very ill for 3 days, two times i.v. therapy. Vomiting, headaches, runny stools.

My culprit more than likely were a couple of factors, but the main factor was liver disease and didn't know it. Get tested for Hepatitis C. (which is relative to the same viruses that cause shingles, chicken pox, yellow and dengue fevers, herpes, cold sores- Epstein Barr)

This disease can run rampant in your body for decades before it decides to cause the symptoms it can cause.

What about Lyme disease? Do you live in an area more prone to contracting it? Sometimes there is no red bullseye rash. Your symptoms sound familiar to that as well.

Good luck to you.

Answer 6

Shingles stays in quadrants on the body--it is an infection of the nerves caused by the same virus as chicken pox. (herpes zoster)

BUT you most certainly CAN get shingles if you have had chicken pox in the past!! thats the whole point of shingles--its a re-activation of the virus!!
If you are still feeling bad--go see your doctor again!

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Shingles itch and shingles IS dormant chicken pox--stress usually brings it on. Other than that, what you've described sounds like genital herpes, (and I'm being serious)

Answer 9

If you had chicken pox as a child, you probably don't have shingles - if you didn't, then it's possible.

Answer 10

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