On Sunday it will be 14 weeks since I got shingles and I am still feeling ill and suffering pain and nausea. The shingles have turned to Posthepetic Neuralgia and there is no sign of improvement any time soon. For the past 3 months, I haven't been anywhere except to the hospital and my doctor's surgery and I have been unable to do very much at all. My dear husband has been doing most of the chores etc.
I not only had shingles but my chronic urticaria was sent haywire and my medication stopped working causing me to suffer dreadful, painful itching and, for 8 weeks, I was having non-stop outbreaks of the hives, just about everywhere on my body for every single waking second and for three days of that, i was unable to sleep; exhaustion kicked in and, from time to time, I would nod off for between an hour and at the most three. Itching every waking moment sends you crazy and is sheer hell on earth. I don't know how I got through it.
I have been taken by ambulance twice; the first time when I was going through the roof in the constant torment from the urticaria and poor Brian did not know what to do with me to get me out of the misery and rang 999. However, we found out that you can be screaming and being driven out of your mind and there is nothing the hospital can do. ( though I suspect they would not leave the queen unattended in such circumstances). The second time was when a paramedic had come to the house and had tried to stop my discomfort. In the end, he got cold feet about giving me the injection he was discussing and sent for an ambulance to take me to the hospital where (he said) it would need a doctor to administer it; when we arrived I was sent to EMS at the hospital where I saw a doctor who sent me home with yet more pills to try.
Thankfully, my urticaria is now back to being manageable again and I just have this PHN to deal with but my days are spent in my being uncomfortable from the pain of PHN and only being able to sit one way, sleep only on my left otherwise the pain is excrutiating. (I'm sitting here with the drawer of my desk pulled out with a cushion pressed against my shingles scars to stop the pain) I am feeling continuously nauseas and
I am suffering from the most awful depression which I am unable to shake off.