PSA. I'm home from the doc for my back pain. If you are suffering with pain of unknown cause this info may help you.

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11. I'm so sorry to hear that. I'm very familiar with the soul-sucking pain shingles causes.

I've had 12 bouts of shingles since 1994, all but one down my right sciatic nerve which has caused permanent nerve damage. (Multiple bouts run in my family, yay) I'm currently investigating a spinal cord stimulator to try to reduce the chronic pain. I've also been on a daily dose of acyclovir (antiviral) for about 3 years which seems to have prevented another outbreak.

I've tried lidocaine patches and compound creams which have helped the skin pain, but they didn't touch the deep nerve pain. I wish I better ideas for you, but you just have to tough it out. Easier said than done, I know. I haven't slept in a bed since the pain clinic I used to go to went out of business about 18 months ago and pain clinics now won't prescribe the meds that made the pain bearable. I have to sleep in a recliner because it hurts too much to lay flat. It sucks.

The pain should ease up in a couple of weeks. My permanent nerve damage is because the nerve has been attacked so many times. One shingles attack usually doesn't cause permanent damage. Again, I'm so sorry you're going through this.