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Shingles and WTF?
Jan. 15th, 2018 04:18 pmI came down with a small rash on my side a week and a half ago. It was red and painful and itchy. After a week, it wasn't going away or getting better, so I made a doctor's appointment for Monday (today). Over the weekend, I wore soft, loose clothes to avoid irritating it, and I used hydrocortisone ointment. By Sunday, it had shown improvement, and Monday morning it was much, much better, but I went to the doctor anyway, mostly to find out what it might be.
The doctor asked after my symptoms, looked closely at the rash, and announced it was shingles.
This startled me greatly.
"I can't have shingles," I said. "I've never had chickenpox."
This is true. I never had chickenpox. My brother and sister never had it. My mother never had it, either. As a result, when the varicella vaccine came out in the 90s, I was first in line at my then-doctor's office to get one. She was a little surprised to hear I'd never had chickenpox and suggested we run a blood test to see if I had antibodies for it. Maybe some kind of immunity runs in my family, she said, or maybe you had a mild version of it and didn't know it.
The test came back negative--no varicella antibodies. I'd never been exposed to chickenpox. So she gave me the vaccine.
I explained all this to my current doctor. He was also a little surprised.
"It's possible you had it when you were young, but didn't know it," he said. "Sometimes chickenpox can feel like just a cold."
"That would have given me antibodies," I pointed out, "and I didn't have them."
"You might have gotten it from the vaccine itself, then," he said. "The vaccine is a live virus, after all."
He went on to explain that if I had come in a little earlier, they could have taken a culture from the rash to see if the virus was present, but at this point, the rash had progressed too far into the healing stage. But if it comes back, I should come in right away for testing. In the meantime, the rash is healing, and meds are past helping. Nothing to do but wait.
I'm still feeling kidney pain that I associate with stones, and I asked if the pain I was feeling from the rash could be neuralgia, a condition in which pain nerves located distant from a problem can be stimulated to create false pain. The rash is several inches away from the area where I'm feeling kidney pain. Could I be getting false pain from the rash?
"Not along that 'circuit,' " the doctor said. "You'd feel that kind of pain somewhere else."
So we're back with the urologist to find out why my kidney continues to hurt.
When I got home, I did some research and discovered the CDC says the vaccine can indeed cause shingles, but only very, very rarely. So either I'm a very, very rare case, or this somehow isn't shingles.
And WTF, shingles?
The doctor asked after my symptoms, looked closely at the rash, and announced it was shingles.
This startled me greatly.
"I can't have shingles," I said. "I've never had chickenpox."
This is true. I never had chickenpox. My brother and sister never had it. My mother never had it, either. As a result, when the varicella vaccine came out in the 90s, I was first in line at my then-doctor's office to get one. She was a little surprised to hear I'd never had chickenpox and suggested we run a blood test to see if I had antibodies for it. Maybe some kind of immunity runs in my family, she said, or maybe you had a mild version of it and didn't know it.
The test came back negative--no varicella antibodies. I'd never been exposed to chickenpox. So she gave me the vaccine.
I explained all this to my current doctor. He was also a little surprised.
"It's possible you had it when you were young, but didn't know it," he said. "Sometimes chickenpox can feel like just a cold."
"That would have given me antibodies," I pointed out, "and I didn't have them."
"You might have gotten it from the vaccine itself, then," he said. "The vaccine is a live virus, after all."
He went on to explain that if I had come in a little earlier, they could have taken a culture from the rash to see if the virus was present, but at this point, the rash had progressed too far into the healing stage. But if it comes back, I should come in right away for testing. In the meantime, the rash is healing, and meds are past helping. Nothing to do but wait.
I'm still feeling kidney pain that I associate with stones, and I asked if the pain I was feeling from the rash could be neuralgia, a condition in which pain nerves located distant from a problem can be stimulated to create false pain. The rash is several inches away from the area where I'm feeling kidney pain. Could I be getting false pain from the rash?
"Not along that 'circuit,' " the doctor said. "You'd feel that kind of pain somewhere else."
So we're back with the urologist to find out why my kidney continues to hurt.
When I got home, I did some research and discovered the CDC says the vaccine can indeed cause shingles, but only very, very rarely. So either I'm a very, very rare case, or this somehow isn't shingles.
And WTF, shingles?
