A month ago, we launched the "Herpes Carriers Say" Pain Story Call to hear more about shingles.
Before that, we have learned about many of the symptoms and effects of shingles. However, even if we are prepared, the moment we see the comments from everyone, we are once again shocked by the risk of shingles and the pain it brings to each patient, and the sudden onset of pain is indiscriminate in every age group in adulthood.
The physical pain and mental torture penetrate the screen and resonate with every viewer from the depths of the lines.
In the end, we've selected nine stories in particular, and now, let's listen to these stories about pain......
Some of them are 40-year-olds in the prime of life, bravely moving forward on the journey of their careers, but they have to face the severe test of shingles.
"I couldn't sleep lying down for days"
In my previous understanding, "shingles" was always equated with the elderly, and it was still far from me who had just turned 40. I always feel that I am young and in good health, so I often work overtime and stay up late, and the sleep quality is not too good in the past two years because of the cervical spine, but I don't care too much.
This state lasts until a sore throat.
On that day, I suddenly had a painful swallowing sensation in my throat, accompanied by a short fever, and was diagnosed with epiglottitis by the hospital. After the infusion, the sore throat subsided, but I developed some red spots behind my ears and on my neck.
I thought it was an ordinary allergic reaction, but after another three or four days, the erythema developed into small blisters that were squeezed one after another, and then changed from small to large, which made people feel hairy to look at! At the same time, the pain was much worse than before.
That's when I finally realized it was shingles. But because it wasn't treated early, the herpes had spread to the ears, neck, head and shoulders, and when the pain was severe, I couldn't sleep lying down for days. Eventually, the convulsive neuralgia replaced the burning sensation that I felt I could still tolerate, and I had my doctor prescribe it even though I hadn't taken painkillers for a few days.
With the help of painkillers, I was able to sleep for the first time after my illness.
Due to the fear of infecting my family, I was hospitalized alone most of the time, and I maintained a relatively positive and optimistic attitude to cooperate with the treatment. Now, the scabs have faded into red patches, leaving some itching pain, but I can barely endure it.
Because I am still relatively young, there are almost no "blisters" around me who are as serious as me. My experience this time is equivalent to completing a popular science for the people around me, and a friend transferred the article "40-year-old life under the invasion of "waist wrapped dragon" to me.
At present, I am still recovering, and the main reason for my illness this time is that my immunity has weakened, which has given the virus a chance, and for the first time, I feel that the body's warning cannot be taken seriously. Now I'm working hard, running at least twice a week, and smoking has basically stopped.
"I have experienced what I can and can't bear"
In 2023, my lower back suffered a wave of severe pain without warning, it felt like being pricked, stabbed, scissors, slashed, impacted, burned, and fired, and every severe pain could suddenly pull you out of your sleep, and the dream of the first week was to be crushed in two by a whistling train on the tracks, making you can't help but scream or cry, instantly awaken in reality, and then fall into the chaos of pain in the torment, doubting life in a vague consciousness.
Severe pain for more than 20 days, because I couldn't find the cause, I went to seven or eight outpatient clinics in three hospitals for various laboratory examinations; High doses of anti-inflammatory analgesics cause a variety of side effects; In order to resist side effects, various drugs are superimposed...... Every night the pain was tossing and turning, fragmented, and every day gritted his teeth and barely got up and ran to various departments. I have experienced everything that can be tolerated and what I can't bear, but I haven't found out the culprit of pain. Just blindly prescribing all kinds of painkillers, this kind of can't be changed again, it's really a poor donkey.
In the midst of the pain, a thought began to pop through my mind: "Could this be shingles?" In doubt, the family also found a folk Langzhong to try to "catch the flying snake...... Finally, after a visit to the neurology department of the hospital, the pain was relieved.
At that time, it was a critical time for students to prepare for the college entrance examination, and as a senior class teacher, considering that the on-the-spot change may not be conducive to stabilizing the students' emotions and the inconvenience of adapting to the new teacher, out of the natural sense of responsibility of educators, I knew that I had to stick to my post. Time was tight, so I used my spare time to seek medical treatment, and sometimes I was in pain during class, so I sat and lectured. Preparing for class and reading also became a way for me to distract from my pain.
The entire pain cycle lasted for a month. During these difficult days, not only did I have to travel between different hospital departments, but I also had constant anxiety about affecting my work, and I needed a lot of willpower to cope with the constant pain. Even now, the experience of post-neuralgia still haunts me......
"Wet sticky blisters against clothes"
The "nightmare" began with a business trip.
At that time, I was sent to work on a new project in the company, and the project team members were almost unhappy. As a native Southerner, this diet was a challenge for me, and I had to swallow spicy dishes that made me sweat profusely at every meal, and I choked and sneezed at every meal.
The dormitory environment was also a headache for me, several of my roommates were big smokers, smog became the norm, and the closed windows filled the air with a strong smell of smoke. As a non-smoker, I naturally had a hard time adapting to this. For several days on end, I barely got enough rest.
Soon after, my back felt itchy and I had a small lump. Later, a similar symptom appeared in the left rib area, which could be felt through clothing. After a few days, small blisters began to appear, forming a wet and sticky area, and the clothes stuck to it, leaving spots and marks, I couldn't help but scratch it, and it caused a lot of trouble in my life.
After seeing a doctor, the doctor told me that it was a symptom of shingles. According to the doctor, it is possible that the chickenpox virus that was latent when I was a child was activated when my immunity was weakened, grew along one nerve root, and grew into clusters of herpes.
After a week of treatment, the wound began to scab over, and after another week, the condition was basically healed. This experience made me feel that poor environment, improper eating habits and insufficient rest are the key triggers of this disease.
"I thought I had a terminal illness"
On the eve of May Day in 2024, many pimples appeared on my back inexplicably, especially near my waist, forming an area about the size of a palm. At first, I just thought it was a pimple caused by the fire, and I didn't care about it, just itching, scratching, scratching and itching.
Until one day, I suddenly felt itchy under my left side of my chest, and I didn't feel it when I scratched it, as if I had been given numb. After a few days, the place began to have a jumping pain, which hurt for two days, and then the frequency of the pain gradually decreased. At that moment, I thought I had some terminal illness!
After further examination at the hospital, the doctor said that although my symptoms were not typical, they were consistent with the characteristics of shingles, but the pain was relatively mild. The nurse treated my herpes, and after a month of insisting on taking the medication, my back still had a pimple, which did not hurt, but occasionally itchy.
In my unit, a colleague in his forties also suffered from shingles, and he was so painful that he couldn't sit or lie down. I also specially asked him how to treat it at that time, and he said that there was no other way, and the medicine could not work at all, and it would be good if his immunity was improved, about half a month!
Talking to a colleague in the office, she said that her husband also had it last year, in the leg, the pain is unwanted, I don't know that this disease is so common now, does it have a lot to do with people's stress, poor rest, and low immunity?
"You're the only one out so many patients who didn't cry"
I wasn't even 33 years old.
On Chinese New Year's Eve in the north, I suddenly felt a pinprick pain in the upper part of my right chest. At that time, a colleague had just undergone breast cancer surgery, and I couldn't help but worry, so I rushed to the hospital for a check-up.
Because my father had suffered from shingles last Chinese New Year, I mentioned to my mother that I might have the same disease. The mother immediately retorted: "Impossible, how old are you?" "However, the next day, two blisters appeared in my sore area, and when I arrived at the hospital, I was diagnosed with shingles......
When I recall the whole treatment process, the most profound feeling is the endless pain. I remember that my blisters started on my right chest and spread symmetrically from front to back to end, extending all the way to my right wrist. Throughout the New Year, I woke up in pain, ate something and went back to rest. Every night when I wake up to my own moans of pain, I wake up to see my Bichon Frise crouching on the pillow and looking at me worriedly.
After more than 20 days, the number of blisters began to decrease, and I was finally able to sleep peacefully. But my body was scarred, and the scab on my back left a hole the size of a soybean grain. In all the places where there have been blisters, the subcutaneous nerve is severely damaged, and there is almost no sensation when touched, but fortunately there are no sequelae.
I used the method of integrated Chinese and Western medicine, and I had to go to a Chinese medicine hall every day, and at the end of the treatment, the old doctor said to me, "You are the only one of my many patients who has never cried." "But I want to say that this disease is really too painful! That pain is no less than giving birth, I hope everyone can pay attention to it, and people of appropriate age can get vaccinated as soon as possible! Finally, I wish you all good health and may the world be painless!
Some are mothers who have experienced the pain of childbirth, and they admit that the suffering of shingles even exceeds the pain of childbirth.
"Worried about affecting the fetus in the womb"
When I had shingles, I was eight months pregnant and holding a watermelon-like belly.
The rash spread from the left side of my waist and three days later, blisters followed. The quality of sleep in the third trimester is already terrible, and the appearance of shingles makes me feel worse than dead.
Because my dad also had it 30 years ago, I saw him so sick that he couldn't go to work for half a year, and he used various prescriptions but it didn't work, but when the cloth strip of the dressing was removed, he was torn off along with the meat. So, when I found out that I also had blisters, I was very worried that the fetus in my womb would be implicated.
I couldn't eat because of the pain in my heart, I couldn't sleep well, and I was worried that shingles would not fade and that it would affect the fetus in the future, and I spent almost every day in anxiety during that time. After tossing it around, it is now healed, except for the scar, no sequelae, no neuralgia.
Thinking about my father's hardships, I am lucky to be able to be treated in just half a month. Fortunately, because shingles is caused by the reactivation of the chickenpox-zoster virus that is latent in the human body, but the baby was born healthy and did not get chickenpox, which makes me feel very lucky!
Nowadays, whenever my eyes touch the scars on my body, the days of fighting shingles are still vivid, and the anxiety and confusion during this period seem to be floating in front of me.
"It hurt more than my two caesarean sections"
The first time he fought shingles was in 2007.
That year, I had just graduated from college and chose to go south to find a job. Maybe it's because of the lack of adaptation, or the psychological pressure caused by the change of identity from a student to a professional person who is away from his parents for the first time...... Under the interweaving of various factors, a small rash quietly grew on the upper left side of my navel, and I only remember that it was very painful.
After going to the hospital and being diagnosed with shingles, I started the treatment of infusion, internal medicine and topical ointment, and called my mother to cry when the pain was unbearable. Fortunately, the disease was brought under control after more than 10 days, so I didn't want to be away from my parents anymore and chose to return to my hometown to work.
When I saw the call for patient stories, I had just gone through my second test of shingles.
It all started with an inexplicable pain on the left side of the buttocks. At first, the pain was brief and long, and I didn't pay much attention to it. One night, the pain suddenly escalated, and I woke up with a tingling pain from my hips to my waist and back, unlike other common pains, which made me toss and turn and endure until dawn.
The busy schedule and the responsibility of taking care of my two children made me hope that the symptoms would ease on their own, and although the pain during the day was not as obvious as at night, I had to stop what I was doing and take a deep breath when the pain was too painful before returning to work. Later, I noticed a number of small bumps on my lower back and buttocks, and the alarm bell went off immediately, and I immediately went to the hospital and was diagnosed with shingles again.
gritted his teeth and persevered for more than ten days, and finally got better. During this time, I really admired myself for fighting pain while going to work, but fortunately, my teammates were more powerful, and I could rest after work, and basically didn't take care of children and do housework.
I thought I still had a high tolerance for pain because I had two caesarean sections and didn't need painkillers after giving birth, however, the pain of the wound from a caesarean section was still less than that of shingles. I've heard of the shingles vaccine before, but the age of the people who recommend it is not my own. Now that the vaccination age has been relaxed, I will be 40 years old in the second half of the year, and I decided to get vaccinated this year, but I really don't have the courage to experience the pain of shingles for the third time.
There are also elderly people who suffer from pain in silence and leave long-term sequelae.
"My condition didn't improve, but I lost my job"
On the tenth day of the first lunar month, when my father-in-law went out to work, when his back began to ache, he used a spray to relieve it. But soon after, a blister appeared on his back and the pain intensified, and it was confirmed that it was shingles at the hospital, and after taking medication and infusion treatment, the blisters gradually subsided, and we all thought that the condition had improved.
However, just a week later, the pain returned. My father-in-law thought that as long as he insisted on taking the medicine and infusion, the pain would disappear like the last time. A month passed, instead of alleviating the condition, the condition worsened, the pain was unbearable, and even normal sleep became a luxury, so in desperation, my father-in-law had to return home for further treatment.
During his stay at home, my father-in-law tried all kinds of therapies, almost all the hospitals he could go to, tried all the medicines he could take, but his condition never improved, he was hospitalized for more than a month, the pain was still the same, several times a minute and then a few minutes, he couldn't sit for a long time, he couldn't lie down to sleep, and his clothes couldn't be touched, so he was forced to give up his job, and his mental state fell to the bottom. As children, we are equally sad to see the elderly suffering, but helpless, and never find an effective treatment.
My father-in-law has always been in good health, and he has never been hospitalized before that, and he never thought that the sequelae of shingles would almost crush him. In the past six months, he not only had to endure physical pain day after day, but also the psychological pressure of losing his job, and the double blow of mental and physical blow made him almost collapse. We see it in our eyes, we are anxious in our hearts, but we have nothing to do, and we can't find a good cure through the Internet.
You can only remind the people around you that once you find signs, you must seek medical attention as soon as possible, and you can't stop treatment when the symptoms improve slightly.
"I always feel like my grandma is glaring at me"
Even after ten years, the words "shingles" are still deeply engraved in my memory, because during the National Day holiday in 2014, I spent it with my mother in the process of hospitalization and transfer.
At first, my mother only felt a sore throat and thirst, and thought it was inflamed and went to a nearby hospital. The doctor preliminarily judged that it was tonsillitis and arranged hospitalization and infusion therapy. However, on the night of admission, the mother suddenly had unbearable pain on the left side of her face, and the burning sensation was intense. The moment I turned on the light, I was shocked by what I saw in front of me - the left half of my mother's face was visibly drooping, showing symptoms that seemed to be facial paralysis!
After examination, the doctor said that the mother had small blisters in the pharyngeal canal and ear canal, and several could be seen at the corners of the mouth and chin on the face, which was guessed to be shingles, and recommended that we be transferred to the hospital for treatment. I immediately went through the formalities for my mother and went to the best hospital in our city, where the doctor directly gave the diagnosis of trigeminal nerve shingles.
During an acute attack, the mother needs to receive fluids every eight hours to ensure that the medication is effective against the virus. Due to the sore throat, swallowing became a problem, and the function of half of the mother's body was affected, especially the part that controlled the nerves. The most unbearable thing was the constant pain. My mother described it as tearing half of her face from the base of her ears to the tip of her nose.
So, we embarked on a long journey to seek medical treatment, and when we heard any news about the "miracle doctor" who treated the "waist wrapped dragon", we would immediately go there. But often the greater the hope, the deeper the disappointment, and the pain does not seem to ease in the slightest.
Because of the timely medical treatment and correct diagnosis, after the treatment with antiviral drugs, the mother's shingles was well controlled and almost cured. However, we don't know it, this seems to be the beginning, until now, the left side of the mother's face still has no muscle traction ability, drinking water will leak sideways, the eyeball is also obvious due to the eyelid can not control itself, and even the left eye cannot be closed when sleeping. In my daughter's words, "I always feel like my grandma is glaring at me." ”
After three and a half years of seeking medical advice and treatment, my mother was also exhausted and no longer went out for treatment, and gradually accepted facial paralysis caused by facial nerve paralysis. Now it hurts to pinch your face gently, your eyebrows can't be raised, and the corners of your mouth are always drooping. In the 10 years since 2014, my mother has barely taken off her mask.
A doctor once told me that post-herpes zoster nerve pain is a lingering shadow for many people, and even some amputees still have the illusion that their limbs are still in pain, which makes me think that this disease is really terrible. In order to help my mother, I also taught myself "Diagnosis and Treatment of Herpes Zoster" in the hope of finding a way to relieve my mother's pain, but after reading the whole book, I still felt that I did not know where to start.
Seeing this topic, I couldn't help but confide, hoping that this disease could get more attention, research, and more care and support for patients.
In this "war" without gunpowder, there are still countless people who are continuing to fight against shingles, some are still struggling in the protracted war of sequelae, and many people are beginning to try to achieve a helpless coexistence with those lingering pains.
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Work cures before the disease is cured. In recent years, with the deepening of popular science and the improvement of awareness, the herpes zoster vaccine has begun to be known by more and more people. According to the Expert Consensus on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Herpes Zoster in China (2022 Edition), herpes zoster vaccination is an effective measure to prevent herpes zoster, and the goal of herpes zoster vaccination is to prevent herpes zoster, posterior neuralgia, and other complications by inhibiting varicella-zoster virus reactivation [1].
Recently, news about celebrities suffering from shingles has also appeared in the hot news, which has not only attracted widespread public attention, but also highlighted the importance of scientific prevention. In the face of shingles, perseverance is no longer our only weapon, but also a shield of prevention against unknown arrows.
May there be one less of you on the road of pain
*Concentrate:
1. Thank you for your participation in the "Blisters Say" Pain Story Contest! We will send a set of Southern Weekly's cultural and creative "Future Gift Box" to the above contributors.
2. The above content is a real patient's story, except for the patient's affected area photos, the picture comes from Visual China.
Resources:
[1] Herpes zoster expert consensus working group of dermatologists branch of Chinese Medical Doctor Association. Expert consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of herpes zoster in China. Chinese Journal of Dermatology, 2022,55(12) : 1033-1040.
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