Shingles: Achim has been suffering for months – “When will it finally stop?”

His mother had contracted shingles two years earlier, but Achim had not expected that it would happen to him himself. 2022 is an extraordinarily difficult year for him: family problems are taking their toll, as well as strenuous weeks at work. All of this certainly favored the development of shingles in June last year, says Achim today in a YouTube video.

When the first symptoms appear, he immediately goes to his family doctor. He diagnosed shingles – not surprising for Achim. He is already familiar with itching on various parts of the body, pustules and burning sensations on the skin from his mother’s course of the disease. However, what unexpectedly hits him some time later and will weigh heavily on him for the next few months is the pain that takes possession of his body.

The blisters disappear – but the pain remains

His family doctor prescribes a cream and tablets and after about four weeks the itching, blisters and burning are gone. The pain stays. Especially with certain movements, such as tying your shoes or taking folders out of your office cupboard, the nerve pain shoots up in the side abdominal area. He continues to go to work and tries to avoid bending or reaching movements whenever possible.

He describes the pain as a kind of “side stitch”. “It’s just a difference if you have a stitch for ten minutes or a stitch for the next three hours,” he emphasizes. It’s annoying. Be aggressive. “In the best case, no one spoke to me anymore.”

When will it finally stop? Does this ever stop? He asks himself these questions countless times a day. At some point it hits him because of the intensity and duration of the physical complaints on his psyche. At the weekends he is exhausted and needs to rest instead of spending his free time in nature and with friends as usual. The shingles disease finally has a restrictive effect on his social contacts and his partnership, he feels isolated.

In order to break this process, Achim decides at some point to take a long vacation. He is able to relax and is beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. An adapted lifestyle half a year after the onset of shingles finally leads to the longed-for health success.

Today his everyday life is back to normal, but he still remembers the unpleasant experiences of the past year. “I never thought that I could get shingles myself one day, and I would advise everyone to get information from a doctor about possible protective measures against shingles,” he concludes.

What does he want to give people on their way? “That you go to the doctor as soon as you recognize the first symptoms.”

Watch out for early symptoms

Therefore, pay attention to symptoms that appear in the early stages, i.e. before the rash, and if in doubt talk to your doctor about it.

Up to about a week before the blisters appear, the following are possible:

• Significant tiredness and poor performance
• light fever
• lymph node swelling
• Headache
• Pain that can be quite severe and runs from the back to the front, i.e. in the affected area. This nerve pain arises on the path of the virus on the nerve fibers because the pathogens can damage the nerves. Many sufferers describe this pain as burning, sometimes very severe.

Two to three days before the blisters form:

• The skin area is suddenly sensitive to touch, some compare it to the feeling of brushing past stinging nettles. These sensitivity disorders can be very different.
• The skin area can tingle, sting, itch.
• The area of ​​skin reddens, is slightly raised, and then the blisters form – it’s high time to see a doctor.

One in three suffers from shingles

Similar to Achim, many people underestimate their personal risk of shingles. One in three people will contract the virus during their lifetime. This does not happen through infection, but through reactivation of the chickenpox pathogen varicella zoster.

More than 95 percent of people over the age of 60 carry the pathogen after a chickenpox infection – mostly in childhood. Due to an age-related weakening of the immune system, people over the age of 60 are particularly at risk of contracting shingles. Up to 30 percent of patients develop complications in the form of persistent nerve pain, a so-called post-herpetic neuralgia.

The Standing Vaccination Committee (Stiko) recommends a shingles vaccination

• all persons over 60 years of age
• All people over the age of 50 whose immune system has been weakened, for example by illness, after a bone marrow or organ transplant, or suppressed by therapy
• as well as all persons from the age of 50 with a serious underlying disease of the lungs, kidneys or intestines etc.

However, since younger people are more often affected by shingles, either because of stress or as a result of a serious infectious disease, many experts generally recommend vaccination against 50 years of age – but especially with a weakened immune system.