Cripplingly tired after nasty bout of shingles....

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

My poor mum has just had shingles and felt foul for about a month and now the pain has subsided but she is horribly horribly tired and exhausted all the time. Has anyone else had this and is there anything that I can suggest she tries?

hi, im sorry to hear about your mum. has she seen the doctor about the tiredness? have you looked at m.e? it might be worth talking to her gp about this.

Thank you for replying. She has and was told that it was just post-shingles tiredness. I was hoping that there was a magic solution to it!

I'm am sorry to hear that your mum is chronically fatigued.
After a virus it can take a long time to recover, it is important to accept the tiredness and not to overdo it, she needs to build up her strength gradually. Frustrating.
Family and friends need to be supportive and accept that
she is not quite well yet and not lean on her to be as
active as she was.
Swimming, floating and generally relaxing in a warm pool,is a very good way of gently exercising, which is necessary.
Stretching exercises are also good, eg pilates, keeping the body in alignment. Any chance
of mum going on holiday to the sun? Sauna/steam and powers showers are also good for relaxing and energising. Massage is helpful, advice from a sports therapist/GP/physiotherapist on how to manage this could help.
Taking good care of diet. Has your mum had any symptoms of Irritable Bowel, bloating after eating? IBS is linked to stress/stressors and immune deficiency and is also a cause of chronic fatigue. If so
eating bio yogurt can help this and also being cautious about the amount of sugar and yeast consumed. At a certain age, taking a good multivitamin might help.

Keeping a diary is also a good way to measure improvement and up and downs and it helps you to understand if there is a pattern to the fatigue, that can then be worked around, not worked through. This is
called pacing.

Search graded pacing and graded activity.

Drink the daily quota of water we are supposed to consume. Eat banana's!

From personnel experience.