Recurring Shingles
I'm 21 and have had recurring shingles since I was 9... I used to get it about once a year but have had it 7 times in the last 2 years. It used to knock me for six for about 3 weeks but I'm getting better at recognising the early symptoms so that I can have my acyclovir prescription ready and waiting for when the spots come out! The first thing I notice is that I find it uncomfortable to wear my bra (I always get shingles on my side) and then I get that distinct "been hit by a bus" feeling... Absolutely knackered, deep muscle aches and a little nauseous. And then joy of joy, the shooting pains begin! This is the part I find most difficult to cope with, I get really sharp pains drilling down my side and a dull pins and needles like feeling that is continuous. I don't get alot of blisters, just one or two, but they are always inside a mottled rash about the size of a side plate.
I have seen numerous doctors about this who have all said that it's rare, esp for my age, but that's about it. I guess there's nothing that can be done.
The only advice I can give about recurring shingles is just try and get good at recognising it early! And then try and chill until it goes. Useless, I know, but that's all I've got.
If anyone's got some better advice it would be greatly appreciated!
Recurring Impetigo Or Shingles?
I took this disastrous trip to Greece (I was completely healthy before the trip) and upon my return last April within a few days I started having this sore growing larger everyday on my chin. Somewhat yellowish and had a 40 C temperature for a week and very sick for another week. I took Doxy for two weeks which apparently did not eradicate the bacteria.
Two weeks later while a big red spot remained on my chin I started having another sore on my back but the doctor diagnosed (by observation) that this sore was shingles (i had shingles on my leg 4 years ago) so prescribed me Valtrex.
Then I started having another yellowish sore on my lower back last month which is likely a return of impetigo since it itches a lot with no pain and the doctor prescribed me 250 mg twice a day erythromycin for 3 months. I have been taking it for 2 weeks now and the sore appears healing however as a result (of likely my immune system weaken by impetigo) I came down with a second shingle in less than a month!!!. Not to mention chest infection last week too on the top of everything else So it appears I am now in a cycle of impetigo and shingles. How I can get out of this vicious cycle I have no idea. I have never been in a similar situation. is returning impetigo (followed by returning shingles, third or fourth in 4 years and second or third in a month) a norm. I asked my doctor to give me higher dose of antibiotics or a stronger one but he refused. What are my options to end this vicious cycle.
Shingles :: Recurring Every 4-5 Months
I have shingles, I am 33 years old, female, and shingles re occurs with me every 4-5 months. I do not have a lower immune system or anything else, my Doctor puts it down to stress related but I don't think I am stressed. It is really painful, and my skin is really sore to touch. It appears on my left side on my bum cheek and the pain is all down my left side. Each attack I get the pain gets worse. My doctor has now given me a repeat prescription for the antibiotics and I have codipar pain killers for the pain. I sympathise with anyone who has shingles. Roll on the day they find a cure.
View 2 RepliesRecurring Shingles :: Sharing My Experience
I'm a 35 year old female and have had recurring shingles for about 7 years which occurs anything from 3-7 times a year and occasionally back to back. It is always a small cluster of itchy/stinging spots at the base of my spine and thankfully, the only other symptom can be overly sensitive skin down the back of my thighs. It is the only 'illness' that I ever suffer from - I never get colds or other 'bugs' that seem to plague everyone around me. So, the main guidelines about shingles are very general and should not discount anyone who suffers from this if they fall outside the norm for the condition i.e. over 50, poor immune system, you only get it once, spots appear on the sides, chest or face etc. as I don't fit any of these but have had tests and confirmation.
My advice to anyone else who suffers from this is - do try to get antiviral medication like acyclovir as it will minimise the frequency of outbreaks, try the cold sore patches from the chemist (Compeed is the brand I use) - they can be costly but keep the area clean and covered to prevent spreading and definitely seem to clear it up more quickly and with less scarring and, finally, try not to touch the area at all outside of treating it. I have become good at recognising the early symptoms and the earlier I act on it, the less troublesome it is. I have also made a connection with using sunbeds as a couple of outbreaks have occurred shortly after using one so minimise UV exposure of the area (not usually a problem when it's on your bottom!).
Recurring Shingles :: Small Patch On My Forehead Pain Radiates Down On Face
I am 40 years old and have been suffering from recurring shingles since I was 25. They are always a small patch on my forehead and the pain radiates down one side of my face. The nerve pain lingers for several weeks and sometimes months after the blisters are healed. I have been told the vaccine is only given to individuals over 50 and I have also been told that since I get shingles frequently the vaccine would not help me.
I typically get them several times a year and the sun is the worst trigger for me. Since I get them on my forehead it is a bit difficult to prevent.
Penis :: Flesh Coloured Bumps/spots On Shaft - Fordyce Spots?
I have flesh coloured bumps on the shaft of my penis i haven't been sexually active so i have read that it's rare that they are genital warts but i'm still scared, i am hoping that they are just fordyce spots ...
View 2 RepliesPenis :: White Spots On Shaft And Scrotum - Fordyce Spots?
Well Im a male and Im 16 and not sexually active. I have these a bunch of white spots at the base of my shaft and like two mid shaft. and they are all over my scrotum. When they are popped, a white pus type stuff comes out (like popping a whitehead on your face or nose or whatever) I don't pop them, but i did when i first noticed it when I was about 13 years old. I've looked around and the closest thing i can come to is that it's fordyce spots? I really don't want to go to a doctor as this is pretty embarrassing even though its their jobs and all but yeah. Btw when i was taking accutane for my acne they sorta went away? Idk i cant remember clearly but i think i saw less of them but i don't remember. I'm off accutane now but yeah.
View 1 RepliesTrouble Breathing At Work Place
For about 4 months now, I've been having trouble breathing at work. it started out as 15 minutes to a maximum 1hour. I'm thinking it came around the same time the air conditioning came on at work. Now it can start before my lunch(noon) and go on till I'm home(5:20pm). Which gives me 20 minutes of not being at the office and I can now breath normal that I'm out of the office.
View 1 RepliesHives :: No Allergy - Only Appear One Place At A Time
My son is experiencing hives that do not itch and only appear one place at a time on his body. They usually last a day and then a new one will appear and the old one is gone. He says they are tingly and sometimes hurt. This started 2 years ago and lasted for 4 weeks and never appeared again until last week. Both times he had been swimming and was bumped in the face. The welts then appeared a few hours later. He was tested for allergies and found none. Has anyone experienced anything like this? Worried it may be an immune disorder.
View 2 RepliesPMR And GCA :: GCA - Tight Painful Place On My Heel
I'm told it's GCA, biopsy result awaited but consultand said other symptoms highly suggestive of it. As far as I know I do not have PMR but I do have MS and Alopecia. I have noticed over the past few weeks I have a VERY tight painful place on my heel, if I sit with leg extended and pull my foot towards me there is a pain and much tightness on my heel. Is that a symptom of PMR? I keep stretching it but it seems to be getting worse.
View 1 RepliesHip Replacement :: Ceramic Insert Is Out Of Place
Had a surprise appointment with my surgeon today (I am 4 weeks) - he tells me that on reviewing my X Ray, my ceramic cup is not in the correct place - had another X Ray which confirmed it.
He suggests replacing it in January - so that will be nearly 3 months off work, to be followed by a corrective operation, and at least another 3 months off work after that.
I have been through all this, and now I can look forward to doing it all again in 6-8 weeks time. If I wasn't a strong bloke, I would cry
Should I let him do it, or should I get referred somewhere else?
Stress / Anxiety :: Stressed Out Because Of Work Place Problems
I've been stressed out because of the problems at my working place and the everyday problems. I think it might be anxiety.I had this problem for maybe about a year.
View 5 RepliesClitoris Situated In Wrong Place - Directly Under My Urethra
I'm pretty sure my clit is in the wrong place, I've never had any problems with it 'working' however it is situated directly under my urethra, like the top bit of it is sort of attached. Will this cause any health problems?
View 1 RepliesShingles From Someone With Shingles - Spread?
Hello! I am a 34 year old woman who has just been diagnosed with shingles. I have had them for about a week and am quite uncomfortable, but not miserable. I have had some stomach pains for a few days that I believe are associated.
One problem I have is in all the information on the net and from doctors they stress the point "you can NOT get shingles from someone with shingles"... well, I disagree. My mother is a non-hodgkin's lymphoma patient who was diagnosed with shingles about two weeks ago. I live by her and help her and I find it hard to believe my shingles didn't come from being exposed to her!
Just wanted to let others know.
Can't Get Shingles From Shingles? Spread?
I've just been diagnosed with Shingles. I have been told you can't get Shingles from Shingles, only chicken pox from shingles. But I am the third person in work in a week to come down with Shingles. If you can't get Shingles from shingles, how come so many people in work have it?
View 25 RepliesRecurring Pleurisy?
I had a cough for nearly four weeks, after which it suddenly got more painful. After one cough I collapsed on the floor and after that the pain was so bad I couldn't even push bowel movements (sorry to anyone who thinks that was one detail too many). I hobbled to my GP, who diagnosed pleurisy and gave me antibiotics and painkillers (codeine).
This seemed to help. Things were definitely improving after 3 or 4 days. A week later, I was feeling fine. The cough had stopped too. There was, however, a slight pain on coughing (and not-so-slight pain on sneezing) that did not go away.
That was three weeks ago. For the last 3 or 4 days, discomfort has been returning. It's not nearly as bad as it was, and is now mostly on the lower left side of my chest. I don't think it's bad enough to bother my GP with yet. Has anyone else had a similar experience? What happened next?
Recurring Cases Of Impetigo
I'm 17, and have been getting impetigo from the age of 5 years old, the doctor believed at the time that it was from face paint. I've been getting recurring outbreaks every year since then, normally up to three times a year. However, as I got older I believed I had "grew out of it" (if that's possible) yet I severely burnt my lips on holiday and I felt the tingling feeling straight away after not having an outburst for about a year and a half. One thing I can tell you all is that as soon as you think you can feel the first symptoms of having it use the antibiotic cream (fucidin cream) asap, this will reduce the spreading of impetigo immediately. I've recently just had another outbreak just for being run down and so I now know I definitely will still be getting it. But there is hope, I was given a leaflet about this when I last got the cream from the doctor and it stated that you can get a swab taken from the inside of your nose and sent off to the lab where they will find out if you have the bacteria that causes impetigo living up there. This doesn't mean it will appear around your nose but when you get impetigo due to whatever reasons- mine normally being from stress, being run down, change in the weather etc.- then it will trigger it and appear in the usual place. I researched it some more and it said that your whole family that live in the same house should be checked as they could have it and that's what could trigger you off even if they've never had an outburst of impetigo. I had a swab sent off yesterday and I'm hoping that this is true as they will then give me a cream to kill it from up my nose and supposedly it won't come back. However, when I had this done my doctor seemed to know very little about it and I've never heard of it until now, I don't know why this is so I shall see if it works out. I just wanted to share this all with you as I know how horrendous impetigo is, I hate going out with it and as soon as I feel it coming up I know I'll have it all over my lip for a while.
View 1 RepliesRecurring Yeast Infection? Or Something Else?
Hi, everyone. I've been part of the community for a few weeks now but wanted to introduce myself and maybe ask for some help with a problem I'm having.
I'm 33 years old and I have a problem with chronic vaginal yeast infections. I used to get them all the time. I'm talking 1-2x per month, like clockwork. The more frequently I got them, the worse they became and the harder they were to treat.
I started working with an OBGYN who had given me a great list of things to do. I started washing my clothes differently. I switched to a natural lubricant (sweet almond oil). I changed some of my hygiene products. I also gave up soaking in the tub at the end of a long day at work (I have a pretty physical job). She also gave me a prescription for a cream similar to Monistat to use; but the instruction was to just use one tube immediately upon feeling symptoms (itching, etc). It got to the point where I could do one treatment and not have to do any others. The only time this didn't work was when I took antibiotics, which was a separate nightmare altogether, as I'm sure most of you know. Over time, I started to have my infections less frequently.
Last year, they started to come back more frequently. I also started to feel really tired and I had some dry patches on my arms and legs. I also developed an itchier fungal rash in my inner thigh. I saw another OBGYN and she had me use some topical antifungal creams. The rashes would clear up but then they'd come back a few weeks later.
I did some research online and found Dr Eric Bakker ND and his site on yeast infections. I started to follow a Candida diet protocol and I actually began to feel a LOT better. I followed the entire regime for about 9 months and I weeded out all of the glutenous and sugary foods my body has mild allergic reactions to.
My problem now is that I seem to have another yeast infection. I mean, that's normal, thanks to hormones. I didn't expect I'd never get a vaginal YI ever again in my life. The problem is that after a course of treatment, I don't have discharge or itching any longer (the itching lasted a while, though), but I do still have some irritation and redness.
Is it possible this time I don't have a yeast infection at all? Up until this point, it seemed exactly like the type of infection I've had in the past. I'm not 100% sure how to move forward at this point. I wonder if I should just use the topical cream that came in the kit for a while longer; start another treatment; see if it's BV instead? I ended the treatment about a week ago.
Prostate :: Recurring Non-specific UTI's - Possible BPH?
I'm 30 years old, and for the past 6 or 7 years I've been having problems when urinating. It first manifested as recurring non-specific urinary tract infections (which I'm told were the early symptoms of a bladder neck obstruction, probably caused by an enlarged prostate) which eventually settled into a long standing problem where it basically takes a very long time to finish. I'll feel as though I've emptied my bladder but if I wait long enough, more comes out (despite having no real sensation of still needing to go). I've found a couple of ways of encouraging further flow but it's still long-winded. If I get up and leave the bathroom too early I get dribbling, sometimes quite bad. It makes being intimate with my girlfriend kind of awkward because immediately after going to the bathroom I don't really want to risk her feeling anything.
I've tried both alfuzosin. At first it worked great, but eventually the effectiveness wore off and all it did was give me massive headaches. I then moved over to tamsulosin which again...wasn't terribly effective and resulted in retrograde ejaculation. Now I'm on Saw Palmetto which is reasonably effective but seems to wear off quite quickly. I basically have to choose at which time of the day I can afford to be in the toilet for 30-60 minutes.
So I guess my question is if there are any foods I should stay away from, or any other triggers that I might be able to address to get this under control? I don't drink. I'm a social smoker. Maybe 5 days out of the month. Apart from being partial to a good cup of tea/coffee I don't partake in any other substances.
Really desperate for some advice here. I recently cancelled an operation that I was scheduled for on the grounds that I was quoted a 50% chance of success, and the possibility of incontinence and reconstructive surgery if it goes wrong. Not what I want to be putting up with at 30!