Shingles Symptoms

Shingles Symptoms

Shingles is a common disease in adults that frequently manifests as an awful and painful rash. The very first signs of shingles are a flaming or itchy pain inside or under the skin as felt by the patient. It may sometimes be associated with numbness.

Other common symptoms of shingles vary from fever to chilliness with a troubled stomach and head. The pain caused by shingles is sometimes meek and sometimes strong. Different people describe different feelings associated with shingles pain.

Symptoms of shingles are often a sign that the body has been weakened by age, stress or other infection. Therefore, keeping your body healthy can reduce the risk of a shingles outbreak or speed up recovery. If you have been exposed to the chickenpox virus (through a vaccine or by coming down with chickenpox) then you are a host of the virus that causes shingle symptoms. It stays dormant in the body and may never impair you, until your immune system falters due to cancer treatment, fatigue or any other extreme stresses. It is then that it can flare up and reactivate, leading to an outbreak of shingles.

Pain is a very common symptom in herpes zoster, often appearing well before the appearance of the rash.

Predrome (pain) – being the first symptom to appear in patients, it appears to be located at the very site where the virus will be re-activating, making the pain be sharp, piercing, tearing or even similar to an electric shock. Besides pain, the patient might feel that the area is itching or be unbearably sensitive to touch. Muscles aches and even fever are some of the extreme symptoms of the disease.

Shingles is a lot like the chickenpox only it occurs in people who are much older, usually in their golden years. The blisters which are caused by shingles and are the defining symptom of shingles are very painful and occur in groups. With the shingles virus there will be a large area of red inflamed skin and blisters will cover that area. The blisters of shingles tend to be filled with liquid, which is another symptom or sign which is readily obvious it is more serious than having a rash or something like eczema.

For some days, new blisters keep appearing. They are full of liquid and are very painful. After that, the blisters begin crusting and fall off in two to three weeks. Pain may remain on the affected area even if all the blisters clear. If you get a blister on the nose, you should inform your doctor immediately because your eyes may get affected. It can lead to vision loss.

The things to look out for are extreme sensitivity in the skin, which tend to have a burning sensation, and slight itching. After this stage the skin becomes painful, and if you think that you may have shingles a call to your Doctor must be made, as the sooner an antiviral medication is given the easier for the patient it will be.

Care must also be taken should the patient have a form of rash near the nose, or on any part of the face. This is most important to get immediate medical help, as if the virus reaches the eyes it can lead to impaired vision, or a complete loss of sight.