Shingles 3
Drugs
My doctor prescribed two treatments.
The first was 800mg Aciclovir tablets to be taken 5 times per day over 7 days. This is the strongest dosage possible and indicates the severity of the virus (4 times the strength of a cold sore prescription).
I was also prescribed Zovirax eye ointment to be applied to the eye, also 5 times daily. When my eye was at its most swollen this level of application proved impossible.
These drugs are actually about stopping the spread and re-occurrence of the virus and do not help with the pain which you can attack in two ways.
Non prescribed pain relief (consult your doctor)
I used Co-codamol tablets (containing codeine and paracetamol) for pain relief and these can be taken every 4 hours.
I also used Ibuprofen simultaneously every 4 hours, but with a 2 hour stagger over the co-codamol. These help with swelling and inflammation. It works as a two pronged attack to ease the symptoms.
Be warned you cannot escape the pain, inflammation or discomfort, but only reduce it. If you think your daily use of pain killers will exceed the maximum recommendation, try to reduce their use during the day so that you can take them at night. I assure you that this is when you will need them the most.
I also used calamine lotion. This is cheap, but does give some relief to the burning sensation that occurs over the blistered area. The lotion is milky in texture, but dries to a powder as soon as you apply it. Do not apply it to any areas where the skin had broken and be aware that it is hard to wash off – not that that needs to be a concern.
At times when the pain was very extreme I also use a bag of frozen peas as an ice pack (with a cotton cloth around it).
One final suggestion which sounds odd, but works, is this. There may be times when the affected areas literally feel on fire, but are just too sensitive to touch. By chance I discovered that gently pulling a silk handkerchief across the area actually gave me some relief. For some reason, unbeknown to me, the silk actually feels cool and the lightness of it provided sufficient friction to curb the itching whilst not actually resulting in any pain.
Current state of my shingles
Now 16 days since the shingles started, most of the swelling has abated, but the burning sensation still persists over the right side of my head and face. I still feel tired and the discomfort is still at a level that makes serious concentration (ie writing this) quite difficult. My skin in the affected areas is also very dry and flaky, which I am assuming is normal. If there is no further improvement by the end of the week (ie the pain) I will see my doctor again.
What you need to do if you think you may have shingles
You MUST make an appointment with your doctor immediately. Shingles is a serious illness and in the case of facial forms, it can seriously damage you vision and even your hearing if it is not carefully monitored.
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