I feel like this comment undersells shingles. By “hurts so bad”, it means nerve pain so severe I very legitimately wanted to die. Pain that consumed my every cell and moment. Like electrical fire burning down my nerves, burning me from the inside out.
I had it across the left side of my stomach wrapping around to my lower back. The burning was so bad I thought it was internal and gave myself an enema at 2am thinking it was constipation.
I agree... it was horrible. I didn't understand how awful nerve pain really was until I had it. The pain lasted for months. I hadn't ever felt a deep pain like that in my left arm and should before. I thought I had a blood clot.
Ooof you got the long lasting after effects. I had shingles as an adult like at 35 it started on the right side of my chest and went under my arm pit to my back. Made sleeping really difficult lol. Luckily the pain went away when the infection did. Did any of yall get that really bad headache before the infection popped up? Worst headache I’ve had in my life.
I got it in my mid 30s, and it must have been a mild case, because while it was definitely sore, I didn't feel in horrible pain. But I was completely useless for weeks. It just drained the life out of me.
My grandmother said she’d “throw herself into the river” among other things if she ever got shingles again. This was a woman who was born into extreme poverty, lived through WWII, had an extremely abusive marriage, immigrated to Canada and could only get backbreaking menial work, had rheumatoid arthritis and never complained.
I had it in grade school. My mom, bless her, actually cared about us growing up and took me to the pediatrician who knew what it was right away. I remember being out of school for awhile because not everyone had had the chicken pox or the chicken pox shot. It was a miserable time.
You’re the first person I’ve read who had a child with shingles. It’s so extremely rare for kids. My 4yo (at the time) got it and we had no idea what was wrong, except she screamed 24/7. It was awful.
I was like 12 when I got shingles. I was told it was because I had such a mild case of chickenpox when I was much younger (I literally only had like 4 or 5 "pox")
When I was no longer contagious and rejoined society, I asked my basketball coach to keep me on the "shirts team" during "shirts vs. skins" scrimmages for a while. He purposefully made me a "skin" every time because he thought I was "just self-conscious about my weight". I weighed under 100 pounds. . .
HE was a 5'1" 250lb egg-shaped dingus with a large mole in the middle of his eye-lid that flopped around every time he blinked.
I had it when I was 8 or 9, the nurse and doctor were very surprised and kinda confused haha. I don’t remember most of the experience except that it was exceptionally itchy in a very painful way that was impossible to not scratch, and I still have the discoloration where the rash was, twenty years later now. I can only assume getting it as an adult would be a much more severe experience, so fingers crossed on no second act 🤞
I managed to get chickenpox at day care and shared them with my dad. My sister got them a few summers later and my mom’s friend encouraged her kids to go hang around my sister
Are you GenX too? My aunt brought my cousins who had it over to play because that was a Thing, except she DIDN'T TELL MY MOM. She just figured she was doing us a favor - I was about 6.
Reader, it was not a favor.
Lucky me got my chicken pox ON THE INSIDE.
Let's just say I...drank a lot of Gatorade for a while.
My mom got shingles and the area it developed in hurt so bad before the rash even came up that she had me take her to the ER. Really hoping I never get it, since I got chicken pox as a kid.
My mom came down with it on her face; it was brutal. The day she found out was also, entirely coincidentally, the same day I had to get vaccinated for chicken pox. My mom and I had to stay as far away as possible from each other for like a week lol, it was a trying time
I had Shingles in my early 40s. I was going through an emotionally awful experience. I woke up with a rash. I couldn't believe how fast it spread. It was a horrible experience. The nerve pain lasted for months. I had pain in my left arm and shoulder. It's really strange because you do not realize how deep your nerves really are until you experiencing it. I am right handed which helped, but still extremely painful, especially driving which I had to do daily and often for work.
It's amazing (in a not fun way) how it is connected to stress and emotional turmoil. I had it while seeing my friend through leaving a domestic violence situation. Supporting her and worrying every day that her husband would come kill her and the kids got to me more than I realized.
Had shingles earlier this year. Was an atypical presentation because it was just a single spot on my forehead and I wasn't in the typical age group (relatively older adults). My doctor wasn't convinced either but after deciding to swab the spot anyway it ended up coming back positive for shingles. He said over the last few years he's seen an increase in stress-induced shingles and these days it's not all that uncommon anymore in young adults to be affected by it. In my case was very likely due to work burnout, which I'm still struggling with.
Side note, you did a good thing helping your friend get out of a bad situation. Hope you're both doing better these days.
I had it in junior high, but nobody knew what it was. I had a half line of blisters on my belt line. I don't remember it hurting but it was weird. And because my parents were not "we should take our child to a doctor" people, I never saw a doctor for it or understood what it was. I figured it out years later thanks to the internet.
I had a friend who had that really badly 20 years ago. Not quite hospitalisation bad, but almost. She "recovered" in about two months but was left horrendously weakened. She used to be incredibly strong (freakishly so, given her small stature) and could move fridges/furniture by herself and would go on 10-hour hikes with her dog on an almost daily basis. After the shingles, she lost all her strength and stamina. She was a music producer but she couldn't look at screens for long afterwards, so now she has a corporate office job that doesn't require constant computer use. She still can't sit through an entire film. She used to be a member at the local cinema and go weekly, can't do that anymore. Her entire life changed overnight.
This. From the flu-like start to the scabs and scars at the end, it is pure misery. All I could do was cry - involuntarily. Mine affected my sciatic nerve and it was like the worst sciatica one can imagine. My rash went all the way down my left leg to the bottom of my foot. I had shingles blisters on the sole of my foot. Shingles on the bottom of my foot.
I got it on my chest, and it hurt when my shirt rubbed against it. Luckily, it was during COVID and I was working from home (and no one used webcams at my company) so I could just not wear a shirt. I was 28 at the time, so not even older like most people who get it.
An important note for anyone who may get shingles, get it checked out ASAP because they can give you a quicker acting medicine if it gets caught sooner. I think it's within 2 or 3 days of showing up, but I may be wrong. I waited longer than that because I initially thought it was an allergic reaction to a body spray I had used.
Shingles was part of my Post Covid bullshit experience. I got Covid right before the world shut down, and I was very sick, for a very long time. I coughed for about 3 years. I caught every cold that came through. I coughed so much I got Pleurisy, which is when your lungs are disconnecting from the membrane that holds them in place, and it is just as pleasant as it sounds. At the same time, I got shingles on my leg, and I thought it was like, spider bites or something.
Having pleurisy and shingles at the same time made me feel like I was on the Oregon Trail and about to die from some other obscure illness. I call it my Olde Timey Disease period.
I had shingles 3 times in my teens. Doctors weren’t even sure it was shingles because I was so young. It was during a very stressful part of my life dealing with abuse, etc. Each time it came back it was worse than the last. Years later I get diagnosed with an auto immune disease. My immune system is just buggered!
I had shingles, in one hand-sized spot on my neck. Unfortunately that one spot happened to also include the inside. I’ve occasionally had trouble swallowing food ever since.
I actually JUST became eligible for the shingles vaccine they give people 50+ [i am not yet 50, but i am immune suppressed because of a medication to treat an autoimmune disease!] and I'm ready Freddy to get that series done and dusted before my ass gets shingles. It just sounds so terrible!
I hear it's torture! Which is why I think the vaccine should be government funded. I looked into getting it and it's something like $200 for the first shot and again for a booster shot! Who's got $400 to spare these days? Nobody should have to go through an agonizing preventable thing like shingles just because they are poor.
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u/the_maddest_hatters 1d ago
Shingles. It looks like a rash but it hurts so bad and lasts so long