Mayday - shingles pain

[TopazRocks]

My 3rd bout of shingles in 2 years, others were mild by comparison. This time it's on my face, beside my eye. I was hoping to find ideas on how to reduce/manage the pain as, currently, I want to claw out my face and eye.

Does heat help? e.g. a well-wrapped hot water bottle. What OTC tablets help/don't help? I have paracetamol, Ibuprofen, some out of date co-codamol.

Saw GP today - got antiviral tabs and will get eye drops tomorrow when pharmacy order is in. Will see GP again on Monday - this time i'll ask about pain relief!

Poor you. My OH had shingles in the same place as you a few years back. He used your list of medicines at the start but I don't think that he ever tried heat though. His pain went on for ages and after a while the GP prescribed a low dose of antidepressant to help with the nerve pain. If you look up NHS choices for shingles it tells you about them. Sounds weird, but they helped and he really needed them. Get well soon.

Also had antidepressants for shingles, nortriptyline. It does something to the nerve pathways?! They really helped
Take co codamol, heat would probably work, I didn't think of that.

Hope you feel better soon. Have you considered getting the vaccination? When you're better obviously.