Oh - never thought of this until I read this topic.

In 2003, had shingles. Only a very few lesions, with the most being in the area just below the right collarbone, a few others just outside the right armpit and another few over the right upper scapular area.

Was Rx'd cortisone and Valtrex my a Cleveland dermatologist, which I took - the worst part of this story being that I had to leave within days to drive myself and my Sheltie 1100 miles to Florida where we were moving. The burning was during this March trip was unbelievable, and my skin had gone fairly red. Ran into a Emergency Medical Service guy at the front desk of the second hotel I stopped at and asked him what could be causing this red/burning? He said possibly the combination of cortisone and Valtrex, but he suspected Valtrex.

After stopping the medication, the redness gradually disappeared but I was left with what the Florida doc called post-herpetic neuropathy for which I took neurontin. After some months on it, I woke up one day not being able to focus my eyes and the inside of my head felt so strange I can't even describe it. I stopped the neurontin cold-turkey, even though I knew I shouldn't. I soon realized the neuropathy was gone, and I had no ill-effects from the cold-turkey stoppage.

Even though my January 2010 onset of NLD SFN has decreased to bearable levels over the past six months or so, I now get mild "flares" that I attribute to the the stronger sun and warmer temperatures for the most part. Probably a bit to certain foods and stress.

My question is whether or not these "flares" might also be caused by the fact that I'd had shingles/resultant neuropathy. I tested negative for shingles recurrence when first Dx'd with neuropathy last year.

Thank you,

Sheltiemom