When I got shingles on my face and scalp at 27 years old. 2 months of hell.
I would give birth unmedicated 10x over again before I ever dealt with shingles again. I CANNOT imagine dealing with it in my 60s, 70s or 80s with how bad it was when I was in my 20s.
I'm so sorry. It is a rough road. If you've gotten antivirals from a doctor definitely take them. They made me feel sick at first but I do think they shortened the worst of it for me. Take care of yourself. ♥️
I'll second this. I went to the doctor immediately after it first popped up, and my doctor knew exactly what it was right away. I started the antivirals very soon afterwards, and I think it helped reduce the impact.
Shingles is craaaazy. I have a high pain tolerance and threshold, and even then I'd say that shingles felt like getting mugged in an alleyway by mobsters who specifically stomp on your neck and face. Then, when you think it's done, they dump fire ants on you. It's the absolute piss.
Though, I also think I suffer from cluster headaches. Not really a sickness, but certainly the most pain I've been in in my entire life at times. I can tank gashes and fractures and some really bad pains, but one of those was enough to put me in fetal position on the floor for like 3 hours while I writhed the whole time.
Nerve pains like these two things just suck no matter what lmao.
I explain it to people as 2 weeks of being sick as a dog and in pain, 2 weeks of sickness getting better and pain peaks, then 2-6 weeks of lingering nerve pain. At least in my experience.
Im pretty similar that I handle pain well, but also sickness well. I also get frequent headaches and migraines with aura. My shingles was the worst on my eyebrow and forehead and I had icepick pain behind my eye and nose and shooting fire ant tingles that would go over my head. I actually think that side of my head that I got shingles on is more prone to cluster headaches starting there now.
At the time I had shingles it was Covid times and I had a 1 year old and 2.5 year old. And all I could get myself to do was lay on the couch with my eyes closed and an ice pack on my face/head. The pain was exhausting.
For me it was kinda like lingering nerve sensitivity. It didn't hurt, but things like cold and warm air felt very novel on my face during that time hahaha. Rest of that description is pretty accurate.
That is absolutely rough, though. I think I got lucky in that it mostly wrapped around my neck and up the side/back of my head instead of crawling up into my face anywhere past the cheeks. Given that it does afflict nerves, I do actually wonder if it'd cause someone to eventually develop clusters or predispose them to it. I kinda had them before I ever got shingles though unfortunately.
icepick pain behind my eye
Look at the bright side! (Searing photo-sensitivity not included.) We can basically live through any pain now. I try to keep pain on a relativity scale, and absolutely nothing touches that crap. Most other pains are just kinda laughed off at this point.
Yes!! My worst was also shingles, two weeks after giving (unmedicated!) birth. Can confirm the pain was worse than birthing, Lyme, 2020 Covid, long covid or dengue fever.
I got it on my face, scalp, and eye in my early 40s. My face and scalp felt like someone was poking red hot needles in my skin. My eye felt like it was in a vice because of all the immense pressure, and watered constantly. They gave me pain medication, but it did nothing. I got lucky and caught it early, so the head/scalp area was largely cleared up in about 2 weeks. The eye problems continued for a couple of months.
Got it a few years ago on my face, left a few scars. I have a pretty extreme pain tolerance, so while it was miserable, I honestly found the most irritating part to be the people reacting to it
About a month later, a friend of mine also got it and was attempting to commiserate the entire time about how much it sucked despite all the shit she was doing to mitigate it.
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u/MsLauryn 10h ago
When I got shingles on my face and scalp at 27 years old. 2 months of hell.
I would give birth unmedicated 10x over again before I ever dealt with shingles again. I CANNOT imagine dealing with it in my 60s, 70s or 80s with how bad it was when I was in my 20s.