Even though shingles affects thousands of people each year, its main symptoms are fairly uniform. Unfortunately, lack of awareness of shingles symptoms can prevent someone from obtaining anti-viral medication in a timely manner. While these medications will not cure shingles disease, they can help limit the amount of nerve damage and pain caused during the course of the illness. Unfortunately, once shingles symptoms progress past the first few days, the anti-viral medications will not do much good.
Similar to chicken pox, shingles symptoms include itching. You may experience this, as well as burning or stinging in the area where the blisters and rash will erupt. Typically, most people will have outbreaks on one side of their waist, but not the other. If you have had chicken pox before, and experience abnormal itching on one side of your waist, you may want to check frequently for signs of a rash, and let your doctor know if you see anything. In addition, many people also get shingles on their face, and around the eyes.
Because of the risk of facial nerve involvement, it is very important to be aware of unusual stinging or itching sensations on one side of your face. Even though the waist and face are the most common areas, shingles symptoms can occur anywhere in the body. As may be expected, vigilance and awareness of unusual sensations is a key factor in getting treatment as quickly as possible.
Along with an itchy rash, shingles symptoms may also include water blisters. While they do not occur in every shingles outbreak, they can be the worst symptom to deal with. If you do have blisters, it is very important not to break them, as the area will develop scar tissue. If a shingles blister does break, instead of simply scabbing over, it will partly reform in a doughnut shape, with a depressed center.
If you notice this happening, chances are you have shingles disease. Unfortunately, shingles symptoms also includes two types of pain. The first pain occurs with the actual rash and blisters. People with pain related shingles symptoms may feel experience pain or stinging even if a mild breeze touches the rash. The second type of pain is postherpetic neuralgia. Basically, even after the rash and blisters subside, the individual continues to experience the same discomfort. This usually occurs in older people, and often contributes to the deterioration of other health conditions.
While the management of shingles symptoms is very important, so is getting anti-viral treatments. Because shingles symptoms tend to move along very quickly, you have a very small window of time to start treatment, and thus, decrease the chance of other problems developing. By being aware of the initial warning signs, you may be able to prevent complications like postherpetic neuralgia. If you work with, or live with elderly people who have had chicken pox, it may also be helpful to make sure that they are aware of the symptoms and able to tell you about them.
