Dejibo, your DH's Shingles, was on his leg? The rash and the numbness, tingling and pain too, was on the leg, or half-way around his torso? Just curious.

oh, i'm so sorry for your dh.
i hope the med helps some and he heals fast.

it was on his LEG! I was amazed! I have never seen shingles off of someone's torso before. I knew it as shingles when I saw the rash, but was confused about its placement. I looked it up online and it can be on the face, arms, legs or whatever, but wont cross the midline of the body. The MD said he has seen it on legs several times. His rash in on the shin, and his pain is in his thigh. He really is quite miserable. We are all scratching our heads about how he got this.

He is strong, healthy never been sick. He got the chicken pox as an adult about 15 years ago. It was a mild course. He got teased cause he had to call out of work with a baby disease. They went away, and thats the last we heard of it.

I finally convinced him to take pain meds to sleep. That helps.

My shingles went down my right arm (back when I was doing midnight shifts).

You could ask for Lidoderm patches for him. Place on the lower back, when they can interrupt the pain signals going back to the nerve roots in the spine (where the Zoster lives). Lidoderms were invented by a chemist whose wife had terrible postherpetic neuralgia. Shingles pain is the FDA approval factor. But they are becoming useful for all sorts of pain. One cannot place them over active lesions however, and they really work best on the spine, where the nerve roots affected are. They don't work well in the periphery.

Since he is on Valtrex or something similar, the pain should be short lived.

I did have attacks of pain with no eruptions 3 times after my initial outbreak. My pain occurred in the neck. I used ice packs for it and it blocked fairly quickly. But people CAN get simple pain attacks after an outbreak, which doctors can be confused about. (I had blood tests to confirm the shingles since they were on the arm, in an atypical place). They usually come out during some stressor. In my case it was midnights and in the end I had to change that (I developed pneumonia during this attack) and my husband's came right after a hornet sting to his arm. His went into his ear as well, but mostly were on the trunk where most people get them. Because the immune system is busy with the virus, other infections can come out during this time. My pneumonia was very severe, and frightened even the doctor! (shift to left on CBC). It started about 3 days into the shingles, which were also causing a cellulitis, which Cipro was tried on. Once the pneumonia started, I was switched to Zithromax instead.
It was a terrible thing for me...I was so sick. So don't let your hubby overdo...make him rest etc. A secondary infection is possible with shingles.

I have heard that if you have a light case of Chicken pox, then it's more likely you will get the Shingles? I did, DD did and an Cousin did. Mine was on the face, DD's was around the spine and Cousin's was on the back, somewhere.

Wherever you have a line of nerves is where Shingles can attack. Very painful, but then we all know how painful nerve pain can be.

NOTE: The same Herpes virus that causes Shingles/chicken pox, is the same virus that has been linked to causing MS. I sure hope DH isn't headed down that path, as did I, DD and possibly cousin.

If you have ever had Chicken Pox then you can get Shingles. Mine were in my head and they never came out. Painful as all get out. My cousin's were on her face.

Another cousin had them in her eye. Not good and she lost some vision from it. That's when I learned that, of course, wherever you have nerves, you can have Shingles.

Having Chicken Pox as a child is much much better than having it when you are older. You are much sicker with it the older you are. My three had it at 6, not bad, at 10, a little worse, and at 12, much much sicker.

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/shingles/article_em.htm

he is still miserable. We got 12 inches of snow, and we needed to unbury the car to get to appoinments and such. He was trying so hard to be helpful.

He has some vicoden if he wants it, but he is being a bad boy.

His chicken pox was mild, and short lived. My chicken pox as a child was horrible. He is not happy.

Ok now dont razz me on this but could someone tell me what Shingles is and what it looks like???

OUCH! Shingles stink! I had them many yrs ago around my ribcage and it felt like my ribs were broken. I feel for your DH and am glad your scope is done. Hope you both start feeling better soon.

not for the faint of heart:

http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/Hardin/md/s...spictures.html

I had only a small patch on my upper arm, near the armpit.
They never really burst, but went "inside"...turning black for while. I still have the scars.

My hubby's were all over his back and chest. Really angry things!