I have had TN for a number of years and now I have developed shingles ON MY FACE on the SAME SIDE as my TN. Thankfully on a different branch. Has anyone been through this?
As if it wasn't enough having TN and being on a rather large cocktail of meds, a week ago last Thursday I had a minor spell that I felt nauseated. Lasted about 20 min. Then it was gone.
Fri I developed deep pimples on my face - left side, right where my TN likes to present itself. I often use lidocaine gel one the area when breakthrough pain hits. Fine.
Sat, the "pimples" were growing. Decided not pimples. Perhaps tiny ticks that I couldn't see were irritating the area. Would wait and see. I had my MRI's scheduled on Tues for my neurosurgeon appt to talk about MVD. Nothing was going to keep from getting those MRIs done.
Sun. Getting larger, another appeared. Spider bites?
Mon. Spent day at family, found out some bad news about a family member. That night had some break through pain. Touched the "bites" and OMG pain. Not TN pain. But in the same place. Started to look like a rash along my face and my lymph node was like a rock. Of course the internet is a great tool.
Tues. MRI. Made an appt for Wed with a Physician's assistant. Was 80% sure it was shingles. Shingles on my trigmeminal nerve. The same one that I was planning having surgery on. I could only hope it was on another branch of the nerve then the one that was THE one. Why couldn't it be on my belly or chest or arm?
Got to the clinic. Met the PA. I was right. Shingles. She knew all about TN. The fear here being that we didn't want the shingles causing a flareup of the TN. One good thing was that I was on all the drugs that they give people who get the shingles so the meds were already in my system, ahead of the virus. Lowering the risk of a flareup and lowering the pain index of the shingles. She added percocet and ibuprofen to the mix (which I did need later, oh boy do I need it). Another risk is that it would go into my ear (it has).
It's been one week since the blisters appeared. The pain ranges from bearable to agonizing (but not to the TN apocalyptic stage). but it has not caused a flare up. There are blisters in my ear and my face looks as if it's being eaten up - but here is my question, finally.
Has anyone gone through this?
Is there anything I can do to TRY to prevent a flareup? Or, god forbid, a case where I get postherpetic neuralgia where I will have TN forever and surgery won't help.
I know there is nothing can be done about the shingles but how did you get through this mess?
Thanks,
Tina