Shingles

I am so sorry to hear about some one so young with shingles. It is the worst pain I've ever had and I have delivered two babies with no drugs. I have had shingles eight times so I'm a bit of a special case too. The best treatment for pain is litacane patches, and HydroxyPAM an anti anxiety/histamine pill helps me get to sleep at night. The best advice I can give is if he is complaining all the time about the pain please summon extra patients and console him chances are it really is that bad even if you have done every thing the doctors have suggested.
If you have any questions let me know, I have a lot of hands on experience with shingles.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
A.

You can get emu oil at most natural food stores. It's very soothing and helps in healing. I don't know about putting it on the eyes, but they'd probably know that at the natural food store. It worked wonders for me.

I'm curious if he had the chickenpox vaccination? Only because I just saw a debate on tv whether or not they think it really works.

My daughter is 7 but at age 2 had a very very very slight case of chicken pox it was questionable like 2 spots on her total but her daycare had a outbreak so pretty positive. She had the vaccination too. But she gave it to my bestfriend who was like 25 at the time and was also miserable. She was sick for 2 weeks, and just used alot of calamine lotion and pain pills for relief, benadryl, hot baths.

How awful if he has shingles. Here's a link to the Mayo Clinic's site on shingles http://mayoclinic.com/health/shingles/DS00098

I always find their information helpful.

Hi R. -- All I can say is watch that eye like a hawk. If the doctor doesn't know the child has shingles he should be told and maybe an eye specialist as well. The reason I say this is that a friend of mine at the age of about 50 got shingles in one eye and now, after years of pain and twice-a-year visits to a specialist at Mayo, she has lost all sight in the eye. It is still very painful but she isn't having it removed because she can still distinguish light & dark with it and if anything happened to her other eye she'd still have that tiny bit of use out of the bad one. I have no idea how common such a catastrophe is, but I would certainly let an expert know what is happening.

Best wishes to the child!

I had shingles in my early 20s, and it was miserable! Your nephew should have been given medicine--possibly an anti-viral like Valtrex from his MD. In addition to the pain, I found that I was extremely tired. So, your nephew should be given lots of opportunities to rest, and I believe OTC pain relievers should do the trick for the pain. Also, he will be contagious when the pocs start to weep, so he should stay away from anyone that has not yet had chicken pox. Poor kid--I hope he gets better quickly!

He needs to see an opthomologist!! Shingles involving the eye can lead to permanent vision damage.

When i go shingles i went to the dr and the gave me a prescription for it