Shingles scars

I am so relieved and grateful that I don't have severe postherpatic neuralgia from my bout with shingles about two months ago. I think I'm fully recovered! I don't have any discomfort in the spots where I had blisters, BUT I have been noticing discomfort in my left armpit. This is the same discomfort I felt when I had my blisters. My lymph nodes aren't noticeably swollen. The pain only noticeably occurs when I am stressed out. The semester is ending so lab reports and exams have been keeping me busy. Maybe it's nerve damage? It's a possibility. I've asked a few people and they don't really know...Well here are some pics of my scars. I remember being told that shingles doesn't leave scars if I let them heal properly. As hard as it was, I resisted popping most of my blisters. I still have scars and they look like they'll be there for a while. I'm really fortunate this isn't on my face nor anywhere really visible. Yahhhhhh...I'm so glad I don't have those monsters on my skin. My heart goes out to anyone who battle shingles long term or widespread. I had a small, mild case that cleared up fairly quickly and it feels like it took over my life--a mere fraction of what others deal with.

I still have that band where the tape was at. That band is slowly going away.

about two weeks ago:

about 10 minutes ago:

getting sick?

I think I am getting sick!!!!!! I've noticed at night when I go to bed and in the mornings when I wake up that my ulva and/or soft palate is sore. My left ear feels funny........... I CANNOT afford to get sick this week!!! My immune system must really suck. I don't even want to imagine how easily I will get sick when I'm older. I had the flu a few months ago, shingles a few weeks ago, and now I'm coming down with a sore throat and possible ear ache. I thought I was a pretty healthy 21 year old. I exercise regularly (well not the past month because of shingles), but my sleeping habits are horrible. I really need to set my circadian rhythm to 24 hours. I take my DAT...oh gosh. If I don't do too well then I will be even more stressed!!!!!!!!!!! I don't want to think about that. more studying.


FYI PHN sucks
tootles

Day ?

No more shingles. No more nasty blisters! I do have PHN, but I'll take that than having those blisters.... I'm really lucky to not have a complicated case of this. I'll be posting less frequently. I hope whoever lands on this page finds the pictures useful so you'll know what to expect although it was pretty straightforward. Well tootles

Day 15: Contemplating going to the doctor

Sunday, Day 15: I had tiny red spots in my left armpit along with a dull pain the previous day. I planned on going to Solantic of MinuteClinic if my symptoms persisted when I woke up on Sunday. I couldn't tell immediately when I woke up so I decided to wait until the afternoon. After looking up the prices online, I decided to just wait until Monday and go to school for free. Luckily the pain didn't increase nor was it noticeable. No needle like pain, just a lot of itchiness at the Momma cluster and around it. My back cluster does not bother me whatsoever. Neither does my belly button cluster. Sometimes when I'm sitting the bottom of my spine will get sore. This may be from slouching, but one good thing I got out of shingles is good posture. It was less painful when I sat up straight so I sat with good posture for about two weeks. Now I'm trying to keep it up. 

Day 14:....uh oh

Yesterday I took finished my antiviral. I thought my shingles were gone, but I don't know. My skin has been feeling tingly all day...ughhhhhhh. I also have very little pain in my left armpit. I also went swimming this morning. 

Right after I went swimming I took at shower. While taking a shower I noticed a burning sensation in my left armpit. It went away and I didn't notice it throughout the day, but I notice it now. It doesn't hurt when I press it and I don't feel my lypmph node swollen, but then again I didn't feel my lymph node swollen when my shingles were in its prime. 

Well throughout the day I noticed that my skin is tingly. Maybe because I had antivirals in my system every 5 hours, my shingles was significantly suprressed. Now that I don't have any medicine, maybe the virus is still active. I'm going to the doctor on Monday! ughhhhhhh! I hope I don't have it again =[ 

Day 13: No more shingles

So Day 13 was basically the same as the day before. No pain and no itchiness. Scabs are all off except for a tiny one lol. The skin is acutally not "raw" as it looks. It's actually pretty hard compared to the surrounding skin. I hope I don't scar!

Day 12: shingles-be-gone! almost

Day 12 was Thursday, February 24th and honestly I don't remember my shingles bothering me aside from turning my torso. I think that may have been to stretching the skin, which is still kind of sensitive. Minimal PHN pain however yah!!!

Day 11: no scabby!!

It's 2am, Thursday February 24th, but I would like to post pictures of my non existent shingles! In the other post you can see pictures earlier in the day, later on in the day, before taking a shower, and now I will post pictures after taking a shower. It seems as though my scabbys didn't like the shower and most of them fell off! hehe. It actually kind of hurts...but the pain is similar to ripping off a scab and having open skin rather than PHN thank goodness.


before shower

after shower

DAY 11: Yah scabby!!!!!!

i have waited so long to start scabbing! as you can tell i've been picking at them. i picked off a lot of dry skin and some of the scabs came off with it. it looks painful, but it doesn't hurt at all whatsoever. i shouldn't pick at my scabs, but it's so tempting. a lot of skin and scabs come off especially after the shower. yahhhh! i don't really care at this point if i have scarring. it's on my side and no one can see it unless i go to the beach. oh i miss the beach! we had really good weather this week. anyways, pain/tingling/itchiness has subsided significantly. still taking my antivirals on the dot. my back doesn't bother me, nor did my belly button so much today. i did feel a few sharp pains at the momma cluster and the skin around it are kind of itchy. as you can see, i still have marks left from the tape a few days ago. theres a few darker, red spots in that band of redness...i hope no more shingles! i read that some people break out in shingles due to sunburns, or trauma to the skin...oouch! i can't imagine dealing with a sunburn at the same time. well here are my crusty, dried scabs, enjoy!

day 11

open skin
still itchy bellybutton and areas that dont have blisters
blisters on back no pain whatsoever
Momma cluster minimal pain
its a good day!
at 3am i think i slept through my alarm and missed that dose of medicine. 5 times a day= every 4 hours 48 minutes...gets pretty hectic with so many alarms
anyways, soon i hope i can go swimming yah!

DAY 10: still waiting....

I woke up and you can see where the tape was the day before...I don't think I'll be using tape anymore. Plus it is too warm outside to have dressings all over my body. Well, I did the same routine of twisting and turning while putting pressure. I got pus to come out of the Momma cluster! The Momma Cluster didn't bother me much at all today. It's the front spot next to my belly button that is harassing me! It's really itchy and then suddenly shoots a sharp pain. This all happens in a mere 4 seconds and then it's gone. It's also sensitive to the touch of my shirt sometimes. The spots on my back haven't bothered me at all today. Yah! The Momma cluster blisters are shriveled up, dark and ugly. There are scabs forming on the outlining spots and the middle still has the bigger blisters.

So I first had back pain (lower spine) and pain on my side where the moma cluster is at. When I first started having skin discoloration it was mainly at the Momma cluster spot, but at the same time there was a few tiny red spots next to my belly button. Only until the Momma cluster grew did the spots on my bellybutton become more noticeable and spot on my back appear. So technically...the Momma Cluster and the smaller cluster of blisters at my bellybutton appeared at the same time, but why is that the Momma cluster had biggest and juiciest blisters while the baby cluster didn't grow into real blistesr? Now that the Momma Cluster is done giving me pain, its the baby cluster at my belly buttons giving me discomfort! I wonder if they were supposed to turn into the Momma cluster. I was so scared of that. I thought I was going ot have three big, red, juicy blister spots...thankfully only one. I didn't know how I was goign to sleep on my back or stomach if that happened. I wonder how people sleep at all with the shingles that covers their back...OUCH! I'm so grateful I only had it on one dermatone and not even the full on shingles. No wonder the doctors and nurses were saying sorry...I too say sorry to ALL who have shingles. It sucks....but life goes on. There are better days ahead! I'm waiting for mine to come so I can go to the beach. I hope my PI wont' schedule any collections in the next coming week...Well would salt water be bad for the blisters? hmm...probably. I'll look into that. I have homework to do..

DAY 9: blisters SLOWLY oozing

I woke up and ripped off my dressing...I saw nothing! The blisters looked a little shriveled and are much darker. The big blisters have yet to scab, but I think some of the smaller blisters are scabbing. They're dark red scabs, unlike the brown scabs that I expected.

Well I did something you're not supposed to do..mess with the blisters! They're so soft. They're not as juicy and cute as before. I held the dressing over the Momma cluster and twisted my body turning side to side. I put a little pressure on the dressing while twisting. Upon removing the dressing, there was juice! Well..pus. For some reason I thought pus was supposed to be viscous. Instead the pus is like pretty thin, like water. It has a yellow color to it. I couldn't find which blister the pus was coming from. I wanted to see the hole or how the blister leaks the pus. Oh well...

I banadaged all my blisters and did my usual Saturday routine...go to school and study. When I got home at night I pulled off my dressings. There was a lot of discomfort when doing this, not from the blisters, but from the tape. I had these two red stripes from where the tape lay on my skin. I did the same thing I did in the morning...try to make my blisters pop! I put more pressure on them and twisted my body, but no pus came out. So I took a shower and went to bed with no dressings.

For some reason I felt more pain more than the previous day. I thought the pain was supposed to gradually decrease! Well no pain in my back, but all in my front cluster next to my belly button and surrounding area where there are no blisters. The clusters next to my belly button are REALLY itchy, but then when I scratch them, they BURN! I don't know...They're not even juicy blisters! I don't think I could even squeeze any of them and get any pus to come out. Besides that, the Momma cluster is just dandy, but being disobedient and not giving pus everytime I put pressure on it. The cluster on my back is similar to the cluster in the front. Itchy until I scratch, but far less than the front cluster... pictures to come

Day 8 (night): blisters are oozing (popping)!!!!!

I think I may have some of my days off by a day or so...I'll go back and adjust them later.

GOOD NEWS! My Momma Cluster's blisters are oozing (popping)! So my doctor, nurse, and online sources told me to let the blisters pop and crust over so that they may scab over and eventually be shingles-free. I don't think "popping" accurately describes the process. I think it's more like let the blisters "ooze." And it's not really noticeable. Honestly I would not have noticed it if weren't for comparing pictures and looking at the dressing I put over the blisters. 

Note- Don't use regular gauze dressing. Use Tefla dressing!! It's like a regular gauze pad covered with a thin layer of plastic? Or some kind of material to prevent the dressing from sticking to the wound/opened blister. I think some band-aids have this. It makes the white cotton/gauze shiny due to the thin layer of whatever that is. For some reason CVS and Publix don't have this so I had to get some from my doctor's office, but I found something very similar at Publix. It's Johnson and Johnson +Hospital Grade Non-stick Pads. They were pretty cheap and have the thing layer covering just like the Telfa pads.  (I'll post pics of the Telfa and Johnson and Johnson pads later) 

So yes, more about this "popping" process. I don't even feel or notice it throughout the day. Well, I did feel sharp pains for about a minute every now and then..maybe like 5 times throughout the day, but it wasn't consistent like before. Also, these bumps on my back and bellybutton are ITCHHYYYYYYY. They are driving me crazy. I just want to scratch them off. So I guess I can't really describe the "popping" process because it is so subtle. However, the sensitivity of the blisters has decreased. When they were nice and juicy they were painful to touch, but I can lightly run my fingers over them and they don't hurt. They're actually really soft. They may have been soft before, but it was just so painful to even notice. They also don't look as juicy any more and the color is noticeably darker with more dark spots in the middle of the blisters. I don't have any "crusting" over yet, but that sounds just as painful. I guess if you make it this far, you're a champ! I sure do feel like I have overcome a lot even though I had no choice but to.  

Also, on the dressing I noticed very little dried yellow stuff...maybe this is the "crust" ? I was so happy to see "dirty" dressing as this is a good sign of the blisters "popping!" 

So I don't know what's going to happen to the bumps on my back and belly button. I thought they were going to turn into full on, big, ripe, juicy blisters that will look like the Momma Cluster and hurt like hell. However, they are staying the same size and actually darkening with time. They're extremely itchy. Just one mistake of accidentally running my arm across them and I'm in trouble! They also have a dark spot in the middle of some of the bumps. I think these may be scabs? I hhope so! I think they're not growing because of the acyclovir! YAHHHHHH! OR they may just take much longer to turn into the Momma Cluster. I'm always wary about taking medicine, especially antibiotics or antiviral medicine. 

So here are a few pictures from tonight. Notice the difference yah!

ohh i'll post pics tomorrwo

Day 8: waiting for blisters to pop!

More nasty looking pictures:

Day 7: PAIN & NASTY BLISTERS!!

I'm really lucky to have only one dermatome to show blisters and that dermatome be on my stomach and not my face or chest! I would have took a leave of absence from school if it was on my face. Luckily I can just wear a loose shirt and cover these suckers up easily. And if any scarring should occur, it won't be on my face =]

these pics can get kind of gross. You are forewarned!

The following pics were all taken at the same time (within 10 minutes of each other). You can see the different stages of blisters since they emerged at different times. Just for frame of reference this is all along my left side.


Momma Cluster
This is on my right side near my kidney. This is the "Momma" cluster. It's the first to appear and the most painful! This one never actually itched. I don't know what those dark spots are in the center of some of the blisters are. I think they may be scarring from when I previously popped them..or maybe it's blood. I don't know. Some of the dark spots dip into the blister..like a depression. The blister around it is raised. I really want to know what they are!!

Baby Cluster (back)
This is a "baby" cluster on my lower right back. The total area is slightly bigger than the Momma cluster above. These appeared after the Momma cluster. These may be the reason why my spine felt tingly, but the actual cluster itched like craaaazzzyyy!! What baffles me is that the night before, my back had only a few red dots in this area...and the next day it turned into this!

Baby Cluster (front)
This is my belly button trying to be eaten by shingles. These also itched just like the other baby cluster. You can sort of see this cluster is divided into two. The first part being smaller and closest to the belly button and the second part being further away, but larger. The second picture may show this better. Well the small area closest to the belly button actually appear at the same time the Momma cluster started to appear, except this spot didn't develop blisters as nearly as fast as the Momma Cluster. This cluster grew over night just as the Baby Cluster (back) did.