HUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HUGS!!!!!!!!! !!!!christine

Oh Cheri, what a horrible ordeal. Shingles pain is brutal.

Best wishes for a good recovery with no sequela.

You have my heartfelt sympathy. Shingles pain is brutal -- I know, since I had them last year. In my case, they were triggered by my enthusiastic suppressing of my immune system with Cellcept, in the hope of slowing the progression of my MS. Do you think yours were triggered by your fever? The Valtrex does help with the rash, but I'm sorry to report that the associated nerve pain hung around long after the rash was gone. The acute pain (in my case, pain in the bones of my spine and ribs) does back off, though. I'm really sorry, Cherie. I hope things are better for you soon.

Chris

I almost felt human again when I woke this morning. Showered, put on a long loose T-Shirt dress (still can't wear a bra because of the nerve pain from the shingles), rested a while, had a little to eat, rested, checked email. I'm hoping against hope that this is a "turn the corner day".

Last night still had lots of trouble breathing and felt like there was a fist in the top of my left lung. Couldn't talk for more than a few sentences without becoming short of breath. They looked for a blood clot in the lung and said "no". I suspect this is just all of the lymph nodes in the chest and abdomen quieting down.

A friend is coming over Tuesday on her day off to review my hospital record with me to see what might have been missed in finding a diagnosis for all of this. She's a clinical instructor in the nursing school.

The infectious disease doc questioned whether my Rebif was playing a role in the fever and shingles. We held two doses in the hospital and I was just going downhill, gave a dose, started to feel better byt a couple hours later, the rash reactivated and temp went from 98 to 102. That is when the chest pain and shortness of breath developed. I've had two doses since without incident so we just don't know.

They did not want to do steroids or CellCept because they felt there was just too much going on and way too many unknowns.

I think I've exceeded my sitting up limit for now. Later. Thank you all for your concern and support. It means more than I can tell you.

I am glad to hear you are seeing some improvement and I too hope you are turning a corner.

Did they do a CT Scan of the Lungs? (remember that in rare cases, interferon can cause lung granulomas which may not show up on xray but would on CT Scan)

Still praying for your recovery.

Wow Cherie -- this sound scary. I am glad you are having your friend come over and check out the records. Hopefully she can shed some light on whats going on. I hope it's not your meds. I have no clue or much to offer other than my support and prayers. Good luck - Keep us posted. :) Gail

BBS,
Yes, I had a CT scan of the chest on Wednesday night after the pain began on Tuesday. It was read as "benign". Hopefully the record will be ready for my husband to pick up tomorrow and I can see what they had to say beyond that.

So far today has been overall better than any day in the past two weeks. My daughter just called to say my grandson, who was thought to have chickenpox despite being vaccinated, is draining green pus from some of the sites. My gut tells me these things are somehow connected but I have no clue how. Grandson is on antibiotic as of this afternoon.

I'm wondering about your Grandson too. Sounds like the Herpes Virus is running rampant....shingles, chicken pox. I'm glad you had some valtrex.

That helped me when I had shingles of the face. The pain was horible, but I have had no residual pain, thanks to Valtrex, I think.

You know, Howard swares by Valtrrex for his MS. He's the only one I know taking it for MS.

So happy to hear that you are having a good day. I hope you have many more to come.:)

Saying a prayer for your Grandson.

Hugs,

Hello dear Cherie,
I'm glad to hear you had somewhat of a better day today. Had they done a VQ scan in hospital? I know sometimes our Mums will have PE's that don't show up on CT, but do show up on VQ scanning. I continue to think and pray for you. Get your rest now, and keep your spirits up.

Chris

Your Mums?