shingles

[caya]

I had shingles last November, got it 5 days after my BC dx. I was 10 days into my recuperation from my breast reduction when the plastic surgeon told me he had seen "something suspicious" while performing the reduction. Unfortunalety the pathology came back as BC, talk about a shock. THis diagnosis combined with the extremely stressful year we'd had with DH (brain aneurysm Jan. 2006) most definitely caused the shingles.
I was lucky and started the antiviral meds within 48 hours of the first lesion appearing, and most sources says within the first 72 hours is okay. I also took pain meds regularly like the other gals have stated, to keep a consistant level in your body. I was lucky and had a mild case, for me it was the trigemenal (sp?) nerve, which is the lower side of the face, down the chin to the upper chest area. They were afraid the shingles would either enter my eye or my newly reduced left breast, neither happened.

I hope you have an easy time of it. The only residual effect I have is very occasionally I will experience some minor numbness around the left side of my mouth, which is where I had it. During the FEC rounds of my chemo in Jan. and Feb. this numbness would occur often, but my onc. assured me it was my weak immune system reacting, and it would disappear over time, which it mostly has.

All the best,
caya